


Taken - Omakes

by MistressDragonFlame



Series: ABO - Naruto verse [2]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, F/M, Humor, Omake, Past Sakura/Sasuke, past Itachi/Izumi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-02
Updated: 2019-06-07
Packaged: 2020-02-16 04:27:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 23,091
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18684145
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MistressDragonFlame/pseuds/MistressDragonFlame
Summary: Sakura is an Omega, Itachi is an Alpha, and these are the bunnies that created.





	1. The awkward realization Itachi’s team had

**Author's Note:**

> Taken is an Alpha/Omega/Beta dynamic non-massacre smut that turned into a story, because I need context and plot apparently. These are the Omakes that I couldn’t fit into the original story, due to consistency, relevance, flow, or just general had no point. As such, unless you’ve read Taken, a lot of these won’t make sense.

“Ugh,” Shisui coughed weakly, laying on his back.

The room that he was inspecting turned out to be trapped, and had quite literally imploded when he tried to open the door. The sudden, horrifying noise echoed down the hallway he was in, letting everyone else know of his failure to properly identify the trap before it triggered. He managed to avoid the damage, and the room had been otherwise empty, so the only damage was to his pride.

“Fucking trap making bastard,” he rolled over, expelling some more dust from his lungs. Shisui _hated_ traps. If someone wanted to kill him, at least they should do it directly to his face.

“Man, you really suck at that.” Inuzuka Shinoto, the newest member of their team, popped around the corner to smirk down at him. His dog, Kagemaru, was guarding the hidden entrance to the caverns, having been nose-crippled by an earlier trap.

“Shut up, you,” Shisui accepted his hand to sit up, however. He sighed as he leaned against the wall, a bone deep ache that had nothing to do with the latest brush of death. They had been using up all of their reserves on this trip, first with their travel, then their death flight back, the heart breaking battle up top, and then their seemingly endless search in this hive of caves with _all these blasted traps_.

“What’s that make, twice in the last twenty minutes?”

“Don’t make me get up there,” the Uchiha threatened from his spot on the ground. There had been at least three, not that he’d tell the dog man that. “When you’ve been in the corps as long as I have, newbie, then you can speak to my faults.”

“Pft. I don’t plan on being in the corps for a _decade_ , thanks. Only the crazy and suicidal do that.”

“You…” He wiggled his finger at the smirking Alpha, paused and, “Yeah, that’s fair.” He pulled himself to his feet then, his rest over. Thankfully, with the the latest trapped door, Shisui had completed the section he was assigned to search. While he had found some heart breaking things, such as rooms with scratch marks at the door where people had tried to claw free, torn kimono laying forgotten in corners with stains he unfortunately knew the origin of, he had found nothing of Haruno Sakura, the one they were searching for.

“I’m assuming you’ve found nothing, either?”

The Inuzuka looked grim, the red tattoos on his face a stark contrast, “Just cleared my section. Kagemaru’s nose is still out of commission, but I’m beginning to think we should wait for him to come back. It’s possible the Alpha took her to a bolt hole away from here.”

“I don’t think so,” Hyuuga Kaede, the other member of their team, turned the opposite corner. She rarely spoke, even worse than Itachi, and even more rarely spoke in disagreement with anyone more dominant than she. Shisui eyed her cautiously as she approached. He always got along with the silent types (his bond with Itachi being a prime example), but the most recent interactions with the woman caused his hackles to rise whenever he saw her.

It wasn’t so much as the fact he necessarily _disagreed_ with what she did. Itachi was going to leave them to pursue the trail on his own, and he didn’t have the best stamina, even post-illness. He was already flagging when they had briefly stopped, and Shisui didn’t know whether he’d have been able to get into the castle on his own. He was very powerful, frighteningly so sometimes, but he was only one man.

Still, the way she had just so simply reached out and _done_ it, taken him out with a well placed Hyuuga neck pinch, without hesitation, remorse, or consulting either of them… It made him cautious.

“This was the Alpha’s strong base. The rest of the Harem was here; I’ve no doubt he’s broken all his Omega here within these walls. He was in residence, so she must be as well.”

“You find anything?” Shisui asked, still the peacemaker despite his unease.

She hesitated, but shook her head with a frown.

“Let’s track down the Boss, then. Maybe he needs help or something.” Shinoto was the one to speak up, surprisingly. Well, maybe not, he was the most dominant Alpha they had without Itachi present, even if he was the newest in ANBU.

As they didn’t really have a strong argument against his suggestion, both doujutsu wielders followed the ninken user’s lead.

They made their way to the hub, the start point of the branches of the tunnels. From there, they followed the markers Itachi had carved into each juncture, indicating the path he tread. Several had an X crossed under it, indicating a cleared dead end. They eventually came across one that solely bore Itachi’s marker, without an X.

They passed by two doors, each still tightly shut, but Kaede was able to confirm they were empty as they passed. Shisui tried not to be jealous of her byakugan, and undoubtedly ease with avoiding the traps contained in the doors.

They all saw the last door on the end, which was opened widely into the hall. They darted the remaining distance, only to stop at the entrance.

Neither Itachi nor Sakura were inside the space, but that wasn’t what made them pause.

The room was tiny, with a small table, a single chair, a chamber pot chained to the wall, and a singular bed, lavishly bedecked. That was the same in a large portion of the rooms Shisui had looked over. However, here, the sheets were rumpled, and there was a ball of spent seal strips, rolled partially under the table. Evil looking iron manacles, cut cleanly, lay on the floor next to a forgotten tanto, blood dried along the length.

But the smell—strong enough that it bled through their fading Nose Bind jutsu—was very clearly of Itachi, Sakura, and an Omega’s heat.

“Oh,” Shisui started, after they had all stared into the space for more than a minute. “Well.” He stopped, very embarrassed. He felt the same as he had when he walked in on his mother and father going at it when he had been ten, and had been later given the ever dreaded ‘talk.’

He cleared his throat, and tried again, though his voice was still a little high pitched. “Do you think he might have gone to nest?” He asked, naming the state an Alpha went into when their mate went in heat. It basically consisted of the Alpha taking their mate to a securable location, usually a safe box, and them fucking like rabbits until the heat was over.

“Oh, he’s definitely gone to nest.” Shinoto stated. “I bet he’s nesting so hard he’s forgotten we even exist.”

“I dunno, he was pretty set on repressing himself.” Shisui felt like defending his cousin. He winced; really, by all appearances, Itachi had absconded with the pink haired medic to screw into oblivion for the next few days. Why else would they both be gone, and he left his team without a word? A note? Their transmitters couldn’t work with the underground tunnels cutting off signal, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t have sent a clone or a crow summons with a message. He couldn’t believe that Itachi had been taken by surprise by anything, especially if he had found Sakura first (his protective instincts with her were _scary_ ). If nothing else, the facilities would have been destroyed by Susanoo or Amaterasu.

Kaede and Shinoto both gave him a deadpanned look, and he sighed in defeat, “Yeah, he’s gone to nest.”

They lapsed into silence again, staring into the space. Eventually, Kaede did the brave thing and entered into the room to take Itachi’s tanto, and they departed from there in silence.

They made their way up and out of the tunnel, collecting the unhappy Kagemaru on the way. They went to the deserted dining room in the castle, and sat around it in silence.

“So, we’re going to track them down?” Shisui eventually asked, somewhat hopefully towards the dog user. Itachi was wicked clever, but they couldn’t have gotten far, not with Sakura being in heat, and that scent trail was _bound_ to be obvious to follow.

“ ** _Fuck_ ** no!” Shinoto said vehemently, “Do you really think it’s a good idea to approach _Uchiha Itachi_ while he’s _gone to nest_? The youngest ANBU captain in, like, ever? The man of the million jutsu? The Death Crow? _That_ Uchiha Itachi?”

Kaede nodded in agreement.

“Even if Kagemaru’s nose wasn’t still recovering, I’d _still_ tell you no. I’m not stupid. Anyone who approaches whatever safe box he found is just _asking_ to be stabbed to death.”

Shisui opened his mouth to rebut, paused, then closed it. While he was fairly certain that Itachi wouldn’t outright _kill_ any of them, and he was reasonably certain that Itachi wouldn’t injure his favorite cousin, at least, he had to concede the point. An Alpha gone to nest was one of the most dangerous times anyone could ever approach them, or their chosen mate. Frequently it lead to stabbings.

“Fair point.”

They lapsed into silence again, all very much ignoring the awkwardness of knowing their leader had absconded with their mission target to have a fuckfest. Shisui grimaced even more; _someone_ had to tell Tsunade that her precious Omega disciple was nesting with her top ANBU operator.

“We shall never speak of this.” Kaede stated as if reading his thoughts, her voice grim.

“Absolutely.”

“Of course, that goes without saying.”

Itachi can tell Tsunade, and Shisui would make certain he was far away when that happened.


	2. The First Meeting

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here, have some feels.

Itachi opened his eyes.

His bedroom was the same as it always had been, but still somewhat… off. The room was tidy, minimalist, everything put away where it should be, only… it was slightly dirty. There was dust along his bookshelf, a cup left on his tabletop, a cobweb in one corner of the room, the shades were just ever so slightly askew as the morning sun pierced them. Most people wouldn’t have noticed these minute little details, but for those who knew Itachi, and knew of his usual fastidiousness, it gave greater indication of his state of mind than his ever common statement of, ‘ _I’m fine_.’

Because he wasn’t fine, not after Izumi had died.

It had been only two months since her self-sacrifice, but Itachi still felt her loss acutely. She was his love, the one who was meant to be by his side until they were old and wrinkly. But she was gone, and it had been his fault.

Her parents didn’t blame him for her death. ‘ _It had been her choice,_ ’ they said, ‘ _She did the jutsu, then didn’t tell anyone until it was too late._ ’

But that didn’t change the fact that Izumi had taken his Microscopic polyangiitis, or MPA, a rare disease that he had been diagnosed with by Tsunade at the age of 17, and _that_ had been her cause of death. He had always known there was something that caused him his shortened stamina and cough before the diagnostic, but he had disregarded it like so many young people, believing it something he could simply overcome. Izumi had looked into becoming a medical ninja to assist him in finding a cure or treatment, and he loved her for it even as she wasn’t very good at the discipline. His little Beta, always trying her best, and remaining optimistic enough for even his own often fatalistic viewpoint to be swayed.

It was a year after his terminal diagnostic—MPA didn’t have a cure, only treatments, and he would eventually weaken enough to die, more quickly if he didn’t cease his shinobi duties—that Izumi had returned from Suna with a jutsu that she ‘wanted to try.’ She claimed to have learned it from Chiyo, an old medical ninja of Suna, and didn’t tell him the details beyond that. He allowed her to try, even complying with her ‘eyes closed’ requirement, and didn’t show it when he felt no change after she cast the jutsu, certain it had failed.

Only it hadn’t failed.

He got better, slowly, but undeniably. He joined the Hunter division, a switch from the more sedentary Secrets, and his health only improved as time went on despite the strenuous work. Tsunade was extremely curious as to his recovery, but Izumi refused to reveal the jutsu, a requirement of Chiyo that “that slug-girl” never learned it.

It wasn’t until he was twenty that he learned the jutsu had transferred his disease into Izumi, and that was only because one day she simply collapsed and coughed blood after dancing with him.

They had made the last few months of her life as comfortable as possible. He had been initially furious that she had stolen his death from him, and had traveled to Suna himself to learn the jutsu from Chiyo, or at least learn how to undo it. Only the woman had already died, just the month prior, to her rogue-nin grandson, and no one else knew what jutsu she taught the Uchiha. So instead of gaining the cure for his intended, he gained the mangekyo from her death.

It had been late spring when Izumi had died, and he had been on administrative leave of absence since. Ninja of all ranks usually operated more like contractors than hired employees who had more set hours. If a shinobi didn’t show up at the Tower to take a mission, rank assigned as determined by abilities or need, then they just didn’t get paid. Itachi lived at home with his parents, and had minimal costs, in addition to having been taking the higher paid A and S-class missions for years; with careful application of his savings, he never had to work again if he didn’t want to, and so far he hadn’t been inclined to return. Or, more accurately, Tsunade wouldn’t let him return until she felt he wasn’t a danger to himself or his team. Everyone in the shinobi world eventually lost someone they were bonded to; that was an unfortunate bit of reality. But for Alpha it hit them worse, especially when the member they lost was their mate; something that Tsunade knew from personal experience, and so implemented a mandatory leave period post loss upon her coordination. Now, as summer turned to face fall, he still had not returned to his duties.

Itachi sighed and sat up.

He didn’t feel like getting up today any more than he had the day previous, but today was Sasuke’s promotion celebration. He had promised to at least make an appearance, and judging from the sound coming from the rest of the home, it seemed like everyone else had arrived.

He changed into a set of clothes his mother had laid out, typical Uchiha attire of a wide neck, Uchiwa fan along the back, and simple pants. He mechanically combed his hair, pulled it back into his typical low ponytail, and went into the bathroom for his morning absolutions.

He didn’t look at himself in the mirror, even as he brushed his teeth, not wanting to see the face of the one who caused Izumi’s death. She had told him, in that brief window of time between her collapse and death, not to mourn her for too long. She decided to take his death so he could _live_ , be happy, make a family one day, achieve his dream of becoming Hokage and peace between the nations, not become a shadow of his former self.

It had only been two months. His mourning was not yet over.

Itachi left his room with what amounted to trepidation. He could feel the various others in the home, the agitating presence of numerous Alpha of varying strength and the slight buzz of Beta. He didn’t really want to deal with anyone, especially his father, but he still pressed forward into the rattling mass of Alpha. The Uchiha was a clan that valued Alpha above all others, and in turn had a majority of their members be such. Itachi felt it silly, as each of the three statuses had their purpose in life, and it was a constant headache to deal with nothing but the headstrong Alpha. And so, about halfway towards the sitting room, where he sensed his little brother, Itachi felt something he hadn’t been expecting.

_Omega_.

He perked up in the slightest hint of curiosity. He knew that the Uchiha was one of three clans—the others being Aburame and Yamanaka—that didn’t have a single Omega in their ranks, so having one in the house was a surprise. Further, he knew his father disapproved of that particular status, deeming them weak. It was a common belief, especially among Alpha, but Itachi always frowned at the idea. They had a different role in life than being aggressive and domineering, but that didn’t make them weak. The Fourth Hokage had been an Omega, after all, and he had been arguably the strongest shinobi of them all.

He slid open the sitting room door, and took note of everyone in the space in the instant before he stepped through. There was his aunt speaking with his female cousin in one corner, and Uzumaki Naruto was scarfing down an absurd amount of food from the buffet alongside one part of the wall. His mother stood in the connecting room, with the occasional frown directed towards the demon container; she was just as neat and orderly as Itachi was, and it was likely paining her to watch the ill manners. A small handful of more distant relatives were scattered in the room and the adjacent, their Uchiwa on their clothing a sea of red and white. His little brother was speaking to his father, standing near the middle of the room.

And there was the Omega.

She was a slight thing, dressed in a dainty, light purple yukata that deepened in color near the bottom. Her short pink hair, tied back with a Konoha headband, matched the butterflies along the outfit perfectly, and he caught the briefest glimpse of green as her eyes dropped to the floor at his entry. She had very unique colorations, and was quite beautiful even without them, her features just on the cusp of full adulthood. He felt the warming sensation unique to Omegas wash over him, soothing his stress like nothing else had been able to. It didn’t stop his sorrow completely, but it made it just a little easier to bare, and he was grateful. She curled visibly into his brother as Itachi stepped into the room, her head bowed submissively.

He blinked, and realized he was not suppressing his Alpha any. In fact, the entire room had gone quiet at his entrance. He paused, considering, but then left it as it was. He didn’t feel like suppressing his energy, they were all family, mostly so anyway. His father frowned at him as he approached, but then again, he was always doing so.

His brother was the first to recover, as Itachi’s only bonded in the room. Sasuke shrugged the girl off his shoulder with an irritated look in her direction and a quiet hiss to ‘stop it,’ and she recoiled into herself a little more, but remained at his side. Itachi eyed the girl briefly, and flickered his gaze back to Sasuke. He should take better care of his Omega.

“Congratulations, little brother,” Itachi said instead. It was no business of his to step into a relationship he knew nothing about, after all. “The jounin rank is something to be proud of.”

“Thank you, older brother,” Sasuke responded, formal, no doubt due to their father next to him. He adopted an offended and tetchy look as Itachi reached out and ruffled his currently carefully groomed hair (the work of their mother, as Sasuke could rarely be bothered to even comb most days). Itachi felt the barest tug of a smile as his brother roughly smoothed the hair back into place with a nervous glance to where their mother was, but the sensation quickly ended. The room around them slowly came to life, conversations starting again.

“And your friend is…?” He led; he would eventually force politeness down Sasuke’s throat if it killed him.

“Haruno Sakura. Sakura, Itachi, my brother.” He huffed in annoyance and gestured vaguely over his shoulder. Well, it was better than nothing.

“Uchiha-san,” she bobbed a short, courteous bow, though she still didn’t raise her eyes. She was clutching at the cup of tea in her hands somewhat desperately.

“Haruno-san.” Itachi dipped his head in a return greeting. He avoided his father’s eyes as he looked back to his brother. “You will do well in the ranks, little brother. I’m proud of you.” He smoothed an out of place hair on Sasuke’s head, too quick to be dodged. With that he gave up the conversation, as even on his best days he wasn’t very verbose. He bowed politely again, “Excuse me.”

“Itachi,” Alas, his father was not so easily deterred. “I need to speak with you.”

He turned and began to walk to the buffet, forcing the older man to follow or be left behind. “But were you not speaking with your younger son, the person to whom this party is to honor?”

“He can wait,” he said dismissively.

Itachi lips tugged downward in the slightest hint of displeasure, but he tilted his head in acknowledgement. He glanced at his brother in apology (he looked upset, but also resigned) before he continued on his path to the snacks that had been laid out. He made himself a plate, more so for something to do with his hands than actually because he was hungry. He hadn’t been truly hungry in a while.

His father kept his voice low, so that they would not be overheard. Probably because of the two non-clan in the room. “I want to discuss you joining—”

“No.” He said simply. He picked up a few onigiri, placing them next to the yakitori he had already claimed. “The answer is still no.”

He didn’t have to look to know his father’s face turned purple. “You and your eyes are needed—”

“By the village, not just the Uchiha.” Itachi finished for him, finishing his plate off with two dango sticks. “I still serve the village, father. Even if I am on leave at this given moment.” He took a bite of the yakitori.

“You’d do better to serve the police force than the Konoha ANBU, protecting the village directly. Now would be the best time to render your resignation.”

He chewed and swallowed before he responded. “What could my eyes do for the police force that they couldn’t do for the village in ANBU?” The yakitori was surprisingly very good. He took another bite. “If there is a threat in the village, the ANBU are called in just the same.”

His father took a deep breath, a habit of his when he was losing an argument and didn’t want to admit it, “It is your duty as heir—”

Not _that_ argument again. “I don’t care,” Itachi finally snapped, eyes flaring red. He paid no heed to the way the room had gone quiet again, though he hadn’t raised his voice. “I have already made my decision. Don’t approach me about this again.”

He turned and left, not even bothering to excuse himself. He went back to his room, and shut the door, locking it with a seal. It wouldn’t prevent his father’s entry, but it would prevent his _easy_ entry. Itachi knew he was far more powerful of an Alpha and a shinobi than his father, even discounting his newly awoken mangekyou. His father was scared of him, and that prevented him from harassing Itachi in any sort of private setting, which was undoubtedly why he approached him in the sitting room. Itachi felt tired, and sad for his brother; he knew that Sasuke felt slighted by their father’s continual disregard, even when he did very well for himself. There were numerous adult Uchiha who had never made jounin, let alone done so by age sixteen.

He ate a few of the snacks he had brought with him, but they had turned tasteless in the distance he traveled, even the previously delicious yakitori. He forced himself to consume the items, however, knowing he needed to eat even if he didn’t feel like it. Izumi didn’t sacrifice herself so he’d starve to death. He had the brief thought that the Omega had probably been inadvertently responsible for his temporarily increased appetite, but he was exhausted already from his father’s presence, and it was not worth it to return to regain his hunger if he had to deal with the rest of his family.

Besides, it had been obvious he intimidated her.

With a sigh, Itachi changed back into his sleepwear and crawled into his bed, not bothering to toss the plate from his desk. He’ll deal with it later. Sometime.


	3. Kakashi's panic

Hatake Kakashi had often felt the universe was against him. 

First, his mother died before he could remember her. Next, his father killed himself when he had been the ripe age of five. Then a year later he had been assigned to a _Omega_ Jounin, something that he had felt at the time to be an insult to his ability as one of the youngest graduates the Ninja Academy had ever produced.

After he had gotten his ass handed back to him no less than ten times in half that many days, he felt slightly better about being assigned to Minato-sensei. 

Then he had been assigned a team with Uchiha Obito, and Nohara Rin, still with Minato-sensei, he felt cursed again. With one being a Beta and the other Omega (really, the odds of being in a four man team with _two_ Omega were staggeringly small), he as the lone Alpha—and a very dominant one—always felt his protective instincts going into overdrive, and they were compounded by his genin teammate’s weak abilities. His instincts were driven to the point that slowly losing his team to death had nearly broken his mind. Only the return of Obito during the Kyuubi attack, miraculously alive after being crushed to death by rocks, had prevented him from losing his sanity as his teacher died. 

Of course, that meant he spent the next few years literally obsessing over Obito’s well being, and subsequently the rift between him and the rest of the Uchiha (who already hated Kakashi due to his gifted right eye). The clan wanted him back into the fold, especially after awakening the mangekyou from Rin’s death, but the resurrected shinobi flat out refused, saying he was done fighting. Instead he was Kakashi’s permanent roommate, living outside of the Uchiha district as an excommunicated member, retired from shinobi life, and was a self entitled ‘bro-wife.’

Kakashi had nightmares over people discovering that title. 

Then, after several attempts to be saddled with a genin team that he happily avoided, he had finally been tricked into accepting one, as he hadn’t known that Obito—who had finally gotten sick of Kakashi failing all his genin—had given them insight into Kakashi’s final test. So he had gotten an angry Uchiha spare (he was particularly unhappy to learn that he was the child of the clan head, Fugaku—as if the Uchiha didn’t have _enough_ reasons to hate him), _another_ Omega (seriously, they made up such a _tiny_ fraction of the active duty forces!), and the carbon copy of his former sensei (who just happened to be a perfect match in Alpha to the Uchiha, so they tried to kill each other on the routine). Kakashi hated Obito sometimes. 

On the other hand, he kept the apartment clean, was a good cook, and prevented Kakashi from going insane. It was give and take. 

His luck continued on, as the C to A class mission was a freak occurrence that naturally he was caught up in. Admittedly, it did allow his team to be that much better trained, as the fear of death really put some motivation in them. It also finally cemented his team into ‘Kakashi’s cute little genin,’ into his very small bonded circle, and not just his responsibility as their team captain like his experience with ANBU had been. He did have to avoid Uchiha Itachi for about a month after they returned, as the man was _not_ happy with his ‘reckless endangerment’ of his younger brother, but Kakashi had been avoiding Maito Gai for years and had plenty of practice, not to mention there was a very good reason he was called the Ghost of Konoha. 

And really, none of them expected Suna and Sound to invade during the following chuunin exam. That could hardly be held against him and his luck personally. 

Still, he felt he had done alright with his team, despite everything being against him. He tried to curb the impulsive tendencies of the blossoming Alpha, and had protected his newest Omega. He knew that he probably hadn’t been the best teacher to her, as he was terrified of losing yet another bonded (one of the main reasons he failed so many of his previous genin teams). His instincts went haywire every time she had been put into the slightest danger, so he often put her out of the way, where she’d be safe, and not get hurt, to her admitted training detriment. He also focused greater on the Alphas of his team even within Konoha, thinking that if they were trained enough, their own instincts would assist in protecting their Omega teammate. If he just managed that, everything would be fine.

But the universe hated him, because his team was out completing a simple C-rank mission of a scroll delivery and it was _then_ that Sakura went into her very first heat. What is _with_ Team Seven’s luck and C-class missions?! It wasn’t even the correct season, it was _winter_. The week before and the week after would have had her in Konoha, where her parents could have dealt with that ‘gem’ of adolescence!

He hadn’t realized what was occuring at first, as it was typical of his team that Naruto would attempt to curry the favor of Sakura, and or fight with Sasuke. What tipped him off was that _Sasuke_ was acting possessive over their Omega teammate, something that only rarely occurred before (for all that Sasuke usually remained within reaching distance of her, despite his repeated rebuffs of her direct affection—ugh, pre-teen drama). Sakura, for her part, had looked a tad ill, and she didn’t even protest as her teammates swarmed around her despite them invading her personal space to do so (which she usually punched Naruto away for doing so without her permission). Kakashi always had a very strong nose, and so all he had to do was step just a little closer to her and...

Oh, shit.

In hindsight, when it had been after they returned to Konoha and he had discussed it with Obito, he admitted he freaked out a bit. Alright, more than a bit.

He had outright panicked. 

As part of his ANBU training, he had been given a more thorough understanding of the different statuses than he’d otherwise have known. This was mostly to ensure that he could get the information required during interrogations, and properly respond to those he worked with, or worked against. It did _not_ , however, give him any insight as to what to do when a thirteen year old girl was getting horny for the first time, and inadvertently causing her teammates to react to her, even if they hadn’t presented yet. 

He immediately shunshined into the scuffle between his boys, separating them by the scruff of their shirts, and ordered her to pack her things from her hotel room. As he was carefully releasing his Alpha, and she was always very obedient (which was a blessing he was thankful for more and more the longer he had to wrangle the two Alphas he had—seriously, how did Minato-sensei deal with him as a kid?), she jumped to obey without any hesitation. 

He knew he had to get her firstly away from the city. There were undoubtedly males here who would have no qualms about molesting a child, and he _would stab them_ if they even _looked_ like they would touch her (and doing so would be terrible for the reputation of his village). So they had to leave, sooner rather than later. 

He put the boys down once she left the waiting room, then made a dozen shadow clones to dart into the distance. This was a decently sized city, there had to be a safe box rental facility somewhere. 

“Kakashi-sensei!” Naruto tried to dart around him to go after Sakura. “Let me go help Sakura-chan!”

Kakashi growled, and easily snatched the boy back up again even as he kept track of Sakura’s location, “No.”

“You’re being weird, leggo!” He flailed his limbs, trying to free himself from the hold on his jacket.

Kakashi forced him down by his neck into a position of submission, something he hadn’t done since he tested their skills when he first met them. Naruto gasped, struggled a bit, but then stopped, submitting as intended. Such a thing made even the most taciturn Alpha more obedient to the orders of their superiors, something very useful when you had a young, powerful Alpha who wasn’t as skilled as an older, less dominant Alpha. Kakashi also generally was more hands-off than most Alpha were, only doing the teammark before missions as required of him, with the occasional well-done back pat or hair ruffle.  

“You and Sasuke will now go to your room, and pack your things.”

Wide eyed, Sasuke gaped at him as he watched the forced submission. “Kakashi-sensei, what—”

“I said _now_.” It wasn’t a request.

Sasuke, wisely, turned and left without a backwards glance. Kakashi released the blond from the pose and Naruto, currently chastised, scurried after his teammate. He knew that such behavior would probably last all of five minutes with the jinchuuriki.

Kakashi twitched, just a bit, undecided whether he should check on his Omega— _Sakura,_ ** _not_** _his_ he told himself sternly—or follow after the boys and teach them the Nose Bind jutsu, or go and pack his own things. Right, the Nose Bind jutsu. He quickly went through the hand signs, and the very unpleasant tingling settled in his sinuses. He sneezed twice—he always _hated_ that jutsu—then made another kage bunshin to go after the boys as he went to his room to pack. The sooner they did the jutsu the better. 

Kakashi didn’t really ever unpack, so it was mostly entering his room, grabbing his toothbrush and comb, and ensuring he didn’t forget anything. He very quickly grabbed his pack, and then exited, turning to the door on the left from his. Through the Nose Bind jutsu, he couldn’t smell her (he always felt completely nose-blind whenever he did the technique, even though theoretically it didn’t do so), but he heard her shuffling in the room as she scrambled to follow his order. He forced himself to slouch next to her door rather than enter or flee, and tried not to glare too intently at the random civilians who walked down the hall. 

Sakura wasn’t slow, but by the time she had finished packing, he heard the agonized shriek of Naruto a few doors down. The Nose Bind jutsu was one of the simplest things to manage, right there with the bunshin. Unlike the bunshin, however, it didn’t have a upper limit on how much chakra it could take before it failed. The more chakra didn’t make it function better, like the kage bunshin did, but it simply made the whole thing a bit more… painful. 

Something his most idiotic student apparently learned just then. 

“I’m ready, sensei.” Sakura’s voice broke him from the one way staring contest he was having with an increasingly nervous looking Beta down the way. 

He looked down at her, seeing her too bright green eyes, face still full of baby fat, and the slight, telltale flush of a female heat. A part of him wanted to step closer, pet her hair until she didn’t look so uncertain, but he made himself step away instead. She was a _child_. He may read porn in public, but he was _far_ from a pedophile. 

“Sakura-chan,” he put away his book, ensuring his hands remained away from her. He tried to be calm, not let his panic show; it would only slow this process down. “I need you to do something for me while the boys are busy. Copy after me, with chakra focused on your sinuses.”

She immediately copied his first hand seal of the dog without questioning the reason behind it, bless her, “How much, sensei?” She was so cute and trusting of him, he wanted to mark her hair as he did during each mission start, so that others would _know_ she belonged to him; he refrained, and looked away instead. 

“Hm, enough for about half of a henge, released in a burst at the final seal.” He flowed through the seals smoothly, slowly enough that she could easily follow it. He knew it went into effect as she wrinkled her nose and sneezed. “Now let’s go.” He led her down the hall, carefully keeping an eye out for anyone who may cross their paths so he could stab them if they touched her. 

Wait, no. No stabbing.

“But what about the mission scroll?” 

“I’ll deal with it.” He had been letting his cute students learn the fine art of tracking down civilians who were pains in the ass and desperately did _not_ want to have the scroll delivered to them (divorce notice deliveries made up a very surprisingly large portion of C-rank missions; C, not D, due to the sometimes hazardous response the messenger got), but it would be simple enough for one of his shadow clones to track the man down.

They met up with the miserable looking Naruto and wary Sasuke, the latter of whom was rubbing at his nose absently. When both didn’t even look at Sakura, he relaxed a fraction. Good. 

Kakashi tried to stop himself from scaring the crap out of the pimply-faced late teen at the checkout counter, but he didn’t succeed. Or try very hard, actually. Kakashi pushed Sakura behind him, feeling her hover at his back, and let the barely post-pubescent _boy_ know what a real Alpha was while still paying the bill.  

Wait. Calm down, Hatake. Fuck, he couldn’t even _smell_ her heat and it was affecting him enough to terrorize a teenage civilian (which was like tormenting a first year academy student, only more sad). He had been around adult females in heat before—and had enjoyed himself with some of them—even one or two female Omega heats. However, Rin had died before he was ever knowingly exposed to a heat of a female Omega of _whom he was bonded to_. He wanted to protect Sakura on a good day, and now he was creeping up on frantic for how much wanted to hide her from everyone and everything. His shoulder kept twitching and he was keenly aware of everyone within the immediate fifteen meters at a given time, which was three times his usual distance, and still he felt like it wasn’t enough. It was causing a headache. 

He herded his genin from the city just to be free of it (subtly accepting the small brown bag one of his clones had fetched, grimly absorbing the embarrassment it experienced purchasing said package), and by the time they passed into the outskirts of the city, another one of his clones disbursed and he knew of the place that had been secured. A lot more western than they had been traveling, but he managed to adjust them seamlessly. 

He left the boys at a small creek as he and Sakura traversed the remainder of the distance. As the nature of the safe box was a rentable facility, it was a little more easily accessible than ones found closer to ninja villages or he’d like. The Nara, who tended to throw more Omega than most, were infamous for their so-called ‘shadowboxes’ in their forest, and no seeking Alpha had ever found one to his knowledge. So while he would have loved to squirrel his precious, ill-timing student away in one of those, he didn’t have one, so he had to make due. 

He kept her close as he crouched near the edge of the tiny clearing where the shack was, to observe the facilities in case of traps and ambushes. He was contemplating an S-rank genjutsu check before he realized he was almost certainly overreacting, considering they were in the heart of the Land of Fire, not near any major shinobi district. No one likely even knew that he and his team were out here, let alone that his Omega had entered into her first heat while here, on top of him choosing _that_ particular agency to rent _this_ particular safe box. The likelihood of this being trapped with anything, let alone by a jutsu only a handful of people could even cast, was _astronomically_ slim. 

He paused, then did the check anyway; the universe was out to get him, after all. 

When he was satisfied the shack was so far clean of any traps or recent travel, he grabbed her wrist and tugged, leading her to dart the brief clearing to the door. He pushed her inside and closed the door behind him. He eyed the studio facilities, which seemed to be decent enough quality, like a furnished apartment—simple, unpersonalized, but sufficient. The windows along the top of the space were high and narrow, enough for light to come in but disencouraging to anyone trying to sneak in through them. Shinobi, of course, could still manage it, so he came up with three different, layered traps to lay on the outside to ensure that they couldn’t break in either. 

“Kakashi-sensei, are you alright?” 

He looked down to see her flushed face looking at him cautiously, and he realized he still had his hand on her shoulder. He let go of her as if burned, stepping away quickly. The idea of nesting with his student sent a shudder of revulsion up his spine; he would never, _ever_ allow his instincts to make him do such a thing, he’d stab _himself_ first. He coughed to cover his reaction a bit, and pulled out a sealing scroll filled with food supplies to lay on the kitchen counter. “Right, um,” he coughed again. He was so out of the water with this. Was he supposed to be sympathetic? Hopeful? Congratulatory? He’d rather be fighting Zabuza again than here right at this moment; why couldn’t there just be another A-ranked nukenin interrupting this C-rank instead?“I want you to stay here. It’s, um, very important you don’t leave this cabin for the next few days. I will come get you when, uh, _it_ , is over.” 

He plopped the bag of suppressant herbs onto the tabletop, and thanked the gods that he, being male, never had to deal with a heat. She was good with herbs and medicine, she (probably) already knew how to use them, which was good, as he certainly had no idea. Or maybe there was instructions; his clone hadn’t really checked, just grabbed the first one on the shelf and purchased it as quickly as possible. The brown unmarked bag mocked him. He felt his embarrassment crawl up his neck, his stomach clenching in discontent. “These are, uh,” he cleared his throat, “Here.”

“Kakashi-sen—”

“I’m trapping the door behind me. Welp, bye.” And he faded from sight, giving rise to his moniker of the Ghost.

It was a strategic retreat, not cowardly, he assured himself, as his kamui deposited him outside the shack. If she had asked him to stay, he just may have, and he _refused_ to allow himself to be put in a position where he could take advantage of her. 

He did has he said, trapping the safe box and using everything in his arsenal that he could think of to ensure _no one_ could possibly disturb her during her heat. He had been in the ANBU for a long time, survived a war and an angry Uchiha clan, he had quite the bank to pull from. He even retrieved Naruto and Sasuke, and used the former to get more ideas. For all that the blond was an idiot, he was a genius at setting and getting around traps—really, how _did_ the brat break into the Hokage Tower so easily? He knew first hand knowledge of, and had a hand in _making_ , the traps preventing such access—he posed his trap layers like it was a theoretical question for Naruto to dissect. Sasuke, as he had intended, was spurred by the idea of his teammate being better than him at something, and vehemently added his own opinions.

Kakashi was quite satisfied with his work, in the end. Not even a kage could get into the cabin without him at least knowing about it. 

The next few days passed uneventful, though Kakashi found himself unable to sleep even when he was camped out on the roof of the safe box, his paranoia certain that someone would hurt Sakura should he have even a momentary loss of concentration. His shoulders constantly itched, as if he was forgetting something, or if there was something/someone he should be watching out for. It was enough that both of his cute Alpha students reacted to him, each acting more and more on edge as time went on. This resulted in no civilian casualties, thankfully, but cost the lives of three rabbits, two squirrels, one wild boar piglet (Naruto was particularly upset by that one), and twelve unfortunate birds. It saved them time on hunting, Kakashi supposed.

The morning of the third day, Kakashi cautiously dropped his Nose Bind jutsu, and approached from downwind of the cabin. While he could smell the remnants of a female heat, it was older, by at least ten hours, and fading. It didn’t cause him to react the same as the fresh scent did; it was over. He breathed a huge sigh of relief, fetched the boys, and got to work. 

He dismantled the traps, tossing the dangerous-to-leave-near-civilians still good supplies to Sasuke, and the trash bits to Naruto, his steps lighter with each one taken down. He blinked a bit as he got most of the way done—he had laid a _lot_ of them. He didn’t really remember putting this many, but these last few were definitely ones he had copied from Iwa nin back in the war. 

His instincts were humming contentedly. No one had gotten his precious student while she was most vulnerable, he kept his more troublesome students occupied, his clone tracked down the wayward target, and now they could all happily return to Konoha. He had done a good job all things considered, he decided. 

He popped into the door casually, one hand in his pocket and the other raised with two fingers up, “Yo.”

His belief in having done a good job last all of the three seconds it took before Sakura had wrapped her skinny arms around him and started to sob uncontrollably, apologizing over and over again and swearing she’d be a better student so he’d not abandon her again. 

Oh, shit.


	4. The Question, with the capital Q

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> These omakes are not necessarily in chronological order.

“Haruno Sakura, will you do me the honor of becoming Mrs. Uchiha Itachi?”

Sakura, having been mid-chew of some seasoned egg onigiri, promptly choked. 

It wasn’t as if she hadn’t discussed marriage before. Ino and her had talked about it at various stages of their lives, with varying levels of maturity. They discussed their various dreams and hopes, dress choices, themes, weighed the benefits of traditional ceremony instead of a new-age one, and possible elopement (Ino’s father was bound to go into an over protective Alpha frenzy regardless of to who or _when_ his daughter got married). So marriage wasn’t an unusual topic for her, no. She even very much hoped to one day marry and have a family.

What made her choke was the fact that Uchiha Shisui—who was _not_ her boyfriend—had just flickered out of the goddamned void, got onto one knee, and asked her _that_ as if _he_ was the one asking to marry her. Fucker even had a _rose_ , for crying out loud!

With a hearty smack to her chest, she dislodged the rice enough to breathe again. “Shisui,” she gasped, her voice strangled, “What the hell?”

“Will you marry him?”

She glared, hand glowing green to heal the stress of her abused esophagus. 

“Come on, please? This kneeling thing is actually kind of awkward.”

She threw the remainder of her rice ball at him. He shunshined out of the way, still kneeling, the asshole. “Itachi-kun and I have been dating for three months. _Three_.” She repeated, to be clear, “Don’t you think that’s a little soon? Now get up, idiot, someone might see you.”

He heaved a tremendous sigh and stood, as if she had asked him to do something a lot more arduous than get up. The Beta plopped down onto the bench next to her where she had been taking her lunch. Still glaring, she took out her sandwich out of its wrapper and began to eat that, now that her beloved rice ball was lost to her. 

“Itachi has been _courting_ you for these three months,” he raised his finger in emphasis of his pointed word change, “with an eye to marrying you eventually. In fact, I have very little doubt that he currently has a ring stashed somewhere, the location for the wedding and reception listed and and itemized, a guest list, a household budget based off your incomes—together _and_ separate—and has probably already decided the names and training regimens of your prospective three and a half children.” He gave her a side eye, “And you haven’t answered my question.”

Her face was burning, and she refused to think about whether it was from his belief about his cousin (surely he was exaggerating) or from his implication about her dodging his proposal. “THREE. MONTHS.”

He tossed his hands up. “Ugh, you just don’t understand how _painful_ it’s been watching him over the last few years.” He ruffled his hands through his already messy hair, “‘Go talk with her,’ I’d say, and he’d be like, ‘I just need to gather more information,’ over and _over_. The man could, and _has_ , organized an attack plan to dispatch an entire squadron of nukenin, by _himself_ , but couldn’t buck up the nerve to talk to a girl he likes. Now that you two _finally_ are together, I’m not going to suffer through that again. Itachi will probably wait to ask himself until chakra has vanished from the earth, so I’ve decided to prod it along.”

“So you decided _three_ _months_ was a good time?” She really felt that she should emphasize that.

“Well, I was going to do it on the trip back home, but Death Crow-chan was still a _little_ touchy at the time.”

Sakura flushed even more at the memory; not that she necessarily _disliked_ the fact that Itachi had been overtly possessive of her (in fact, she liked it quite a bit that he hadn’t regressed to standoffishness when in the presence of others, though his casual touches were far less intimate than while alone), but the fact was that his whole team had so obviously _known_ what they had been doing for the last few days before they met up, and it made the trip painfully awkward. Shinoto hadn’t been able to look them in the eye, Kaede just looked even more grim than usual, and Shisui himself had looked torn between proud and mortified the entire trip back. 

She gave him a flat look at his teasing, taking a bite of her sandwich in pointed silence. 

“Ugh, you’re no help, are you?” He huffed a long, drawn out sigh before he held the rose back out to her. “Here, this is yours anyway.” She didn’t take it immediately, uncertain whether she was being tricked. Shisui had a sense of humor more similar to Naruto’s than she was comfortable with to just accept random things he handed her. “Don’t worry, I stole this from the bouquet that Itachi got you for tonight.”

Cautiously, she took the rose. It had been very carefully cleared of thorns, and was a vibrant red without even a hint of wilt. Itachi always gifted her with small things when he picked her up on their dates, like chocolates or flowers, and every time she felt her heart throb just a bit. He was so thoughtful. She took a sniff of the flower, and indeed, under the thick, sweet rose smell was the slightest hint of Itachi. Either Itachi really had gotten her this flower and had carefully thumbed through the bouquet to ensure their perfection (as he usually did), or Shisui had somehow rubbed the rose on Itachi without him being aware (and _that_ would never happen). 

Tonight was supposed to be dancing. Itachi usually planned their dinner excursions, while she would take lunch, and he wouldn’t tell her much details beyond, ‘dinner and the theater, casual dress’ or ‘dancing and drinks, semi-formal.’ It was always pleasant to trust him with the details, with enough information so she could dress appropriately. They had similar tastes in entertainment, though he (undoubtedly because he was Clan born) was prone to gravitate to a lot more formal, traditional events than she was. 

She really liked Itachi, and knew it wasn’t just because her Omega responded to his Alpha so well—which, admittedly, was also pleasant. He was kind, sweet, and very attentive. He didn’t refrain from showing her affection, which had initially surprised her when they were thrown together through that heat. What _was_ surprising about him was that he was just so… shy. It was the only word to describe it. Once he was comfortable with a particular situation, he took complete control of it, as expected of an Alpha of his caliber. It was when he was uncertain of things, like when they had gone on their very first date, he waited until she took the initiative. It had taken her half through the date to realize why he wasn’t holding her hand, or touching her hair when they were out and about the village. 

She was still learning him, his mannerism (he still had that ridiculously hard to read Uchiha lack-of-expression thing going on, which annoyed her so much), and he was still very quiet as a rule, but she liked who he was and she wanted to explore him more and more as time went on. 

“Sooooo...? Are you going to answer?”

Sakura’s happy thoughts about her boyfriend came to an abrupt end as she was reminded that Shisui was still there. She scowled. And usually Beta were such a joy to be around.

“Shouldn’t I be telling _Itachi_ the answer to that question before I tell _you_?” She didn’t stop to think of what her answer was just yet. It’s only been three months. 

The Uchiha held up a finger and opened his mouth, paused, then closed it again. He sighed and dropped his hand, looking disgruntled. “Yeah, fair point.”

Sakura finished her sandwich and canned peach juice in peace after that. Shisui kept her company, idly chatting about the latest gossip he overheard. She had gotten closer to him since the incident with _that bastard_ simply because he was one of the very, very few bonded Itachi had (the other was Sasuke, but she was not yet ready to tackle _that_ bag of awkward). Before, she and he had a polite working relationship, friendly, but never really met up outside of their missions. Now it was a reasonable assumption that they hung out at least once every other week, and knew of the other’s schedule, in a rough-idea kind of way. Sakura suspected it was mostly out of Shisui’s bond to Itachi that made him constantly seek her out than a particular liking to her (Beta just didn’t have that same response that Alpha did in an Omega’s presence), as she knew he was busy and had a girlfriend of his own to bother if he just wanted company. Still, she knew he’d eventually weasel his way into her bonded circle by sheer persistence, if nothing else.

“So, anyway,” He said, in almost the same breath as his topic about the rumor of Mitarashi Anko’s latest conquest (horrifyingly, it was apparently her old academy teacher), “I think you’re going to have to be the one to let Itachi know you’re willing to marry him, since I don’t want to wait until I’m fifty to be his best man.”

He was still a new friend of hers, because if he had known her better, he’d have dodged the punch that followed. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sakura's lunch; seasoned egg onigiri from Family Mart, egg salad sandwich from 7 and Holdings, and canned white peach juice from the vending machine, are real items purchasable in Japan. I miss that food, SO MUCH.


	5. Shisui’s wonderful, awesome, amazing, guaranteed to work, don’t-look-at-me-like-that-Itachi, plan

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've posted this shortly after the last, since the length was short.

Shisui plopped down into the chair across from his favorite cousin. It was winter in Konoha, so he was a little miffed that said favorite felt the need to sit _outside_ the coffee shop rather than inside, where it was warm. He must be a secret masochist. 

“Shisui,” Itachi greeted, sipping casually at his steaming beverage. With a slight sniff, Shisui could determine there was probably a bit of coffee under all of that sickening sugar and cream. 

“I don’t know how you can drink that stuff, it’ll rot your teeth if you don’t die of a heart attack first.”

“Not all of us like to drink black tar.”

He pointed a finger at his cousin, “You leave Suna style coffee alone. It’s the elixir of the gods, thank you very much.”

Itachi just sipped at his drink pointedly. 

Shisui huffed, then wrapped his hands back around his hot cup, fighting off a shiver. “Brr, why’d you sit outside, anyway? I’m freezing.” Even the energizing sensation of sitting within an Alpha’s sphere of influence couldn’t fight back the chill, and Itachi’s was one of the strongest ones he knew, even suppressed. 

“Circulate your chakra.”

“I’m a _water_ type. Its natural state cools me off, not heats me. That’s why we should be sitting _inside_ , where it’s _warm_ , like every other sane person.” He gestured to the very much empty seats around them. Really, the freezing comment was literal; there was ice on the ground.

Itachi reached out with an overly warm hand (damn him) and gripped Shisui by the wrist, and a flood of heat came from his chakra even as he replied, “I did not ask you to join me.”

He sighed in relief as he was warmed by his cousin’s chakra. “What else is there to do but join my favorite cousin for a coffee this winter afternoon?”

“Not freeze, apparently.” He let go, but the warmth remained. He was such a good Alpha; Itachi always operated under the impression that it was ‘just what Alphas were supposed to do’ but Shisui knew a lot of Alphas (a significant portion of their clan was, after all). Itachi was just… _good_. He sincerely cared and he made a point to see to the needs of his (few) bonded and subordinates, offering them just enough assistance or protection so they could do the best they could in whatever position they were in, without being smothering. He also didn’t disparage against the other statuses for not being Alpha, as too many of them did. It was such a shame there wasn’t more like him. 

Shisui started to chat about the latest rumor he had heard about Genma, a former ANBU teammate of theirs, holding down the majority of the conversation by himself. Itachi didn’t have the same feelings towards gossip as he did, but was always a good listener, so he didn’t feel their conversation was strained in the slightest. Shisui, however, _loved_ rumors; the Secrets division had kept him an additional six month longer than they had Itachi, and still were trying to get him to return. Being a Beta in an Alpha dominated field had its advantages, as people tended to both trust him, and overlook him as he moved through. Still, he was bonded to Itachi as his true Alpha, and the separation between them as Itachi had gone to the Hunters division had eventually driven him away from the much beloved Secrets. Beta tended to bond easier than Alpha did (though nowhere to the extent of an Omega), but they only tended to have one ‘true’ Alpha, the one they turned to above all others. There just wasn’t a way to truly describe the contentment that came from having such a bond, and the stress that came from being taken from it. 

However, just because he was out of Secrets didn’t mean he had lost that skillset, nor refrained from using them against his friends—even, or _especially_ , against Itachi. So he very much noticed that while his cousin was responding as appropriate to the conversation, he was intentionally drinking his coffee slower than usual; he was waiting for something. A little while later, slight twitch of an eye in a different direction; whatever it was, it happened, and it was from the direction he was facing at a slight offset. Shisui glanced into the window of the coffee shop, using the reflection to see behind him at whatever direction his cousin was preoccupied with. It was a curry place, the to-go outside window displaying various specials in fading red script. But he didn’t think that was what his Alpha was concerned with, for there was a certain pink haired medic there, picking up lunch.

“Dammit, Itachi. _Again_?” Shisui couldn’t help himself. It was the second time this month that he caught him stalking this woman (and he damn well knew there was more times he _didn’t_ get caught). Well, stalking may be a too strong of a word; he just ‘happened’ to be in the same spot as wherever she ended up, it wasn’t like he constantly followed her home. That he knew of, anyway. He was reasonably certain. 

The man title the Death Crow by his enemies, who spent years as a top ANBU Captain virtually unscathed, the man of a million jutsu who was spoken of in equal parts fear and awe, heir to the infamous Uchiha clan, user of the legendary mangekyou sharingan—blushed, caught out. 

Shisui poked him in the chest, “You need to _talk to her_ , not just follow her around like a puppy.”

“It’s not the right time,” He muttered, eyes firmly on his cup. Like a coward.

He poked him again, harder. “If you won’t, _I_ will. She is quite attra—” Itachi tried to snatch his hand, but Shisui had been working on a modified shunshin that worked on pieces of him at a time, rather than him in its entirety (he was blatantly trying to replicate the Ghost of Konoha’s signature ability; that shit was **useful** ). Thus, Itachi was unable to grab him, and possibly break the offending finger; he was _touchy_ about the girl. That glare was something else, though, so he raised his hands in appeasement. 

“Fine, fine. When _is_ it going to be the so called ‘right time’ then?”

Itachi used the coffee flavored cream to give him more time to respond, sipping before replying. “I need more information first. To try and predict such a moment at this time would be an exercise in futility, since it’s impossible to currently accurately account for all details of the situation.”

Shisui gave him a flat look.

Itachi finished his drink, serenely keeping his eyes closed as if savoring the last bit, but undoubtedly using it as an excuse to not look at him in the eye. 

“Uuuuuuugggggghhhhh!” Shisui rubbed his hands through his hair in frustration. “By the Godaime’s Great Tits! This ‘watch and wait’ thing may work for you during the Assassin division, but she’s a _girl_. An _Omega_. They _like_ it when an Alpha comes in and sweeps them off their feet! Just do something suitably impressive in front of her and tell her to ‘call me Itachi’ with that sexy voice of yours. She’ll swoon in no time. I’ve no idea why you’ve not already done so.” He paused, an idea striking him suddenly. He continued with a bit more caution. “Is it because of Izumi?”

Itachi did not respond verbally, just stood suddenly and dropped his empty cup into the trash, turning down the opposite way in which Haruno had gone (Shisui had kept track). 

“Oh, no, you’re not avoiding _this_ conversation,” he stood, chugged the remaining tar in his cup before tossing it, and hurried after the clan heir, whose shorter legs still somehow powered away from him enough that he would have had to jog to catch up. He did the shunshin instead; jogging was for plebeians. 

“Look, Itachi, I know it was hard losing Izumi, and that has undoubtedly twisted your already messed up mind,” He flickered away from Itachi’s elbow jab, appearing on his other side, and adopted a more serious tone for the next part, “But, really... it’s been years. I know guilt from that is not _really_ what is holding you back. You obviously like this girl enough to lightly stalk her on the routine, and you’re utterly fearless when it comes to planning an executing an attack plan against foes far more frightening than a jounin with ridiculous pink hair, so... What is the real issue?”

Itachi sighed, long and drawn out, trudging up the path to the overlook. Shisui knew him well enough to let him brood a bit over his answer this time, rather than continuing to prod.

“Shisui,” He began, then stopped. They had made it to the plateau of the overlook, a railing along the edge to keep the civilians and the children from falling off the cliff face. As the weather was even worse up here (f-f-f-fucking freezing _wind_ ), it was deserted besides them. He paused, gripping the railing. “I don’t know... how.”

Shisui blinked, and stepped up next to his cousin. “How what?”

“How to…” Itachi breathed again before continuing, “How to convince her to like me.”

There were several inappropriate responses that he swallowed rather than let escape, no matter how it physically hurt him to do so. Itachi was being perfectly serious, and it made Shisui hate his cousin just a little. Itachi was probably the most attractive Alpha he had ever met (and Shisui very much appreciated the female form). It went beyond the fact he was powerful, intelligent, and _very_ pretty; he was also just a very good person. He had more than a small fanclub of people (spanning the entire spectrum of gender and status) who’d give their left leg just to go on a single date with him. True, he could be very intimidating without even trying, and he had the ‘dark and brooding’ bit down more than any other Uchiha besides probably his brother (who had being kind of a dick as an added advantage in that regard; Shisui loved his other cousin, but he wasn’t nearly as blind to his faults as Itachi was), and had mastered his emotional expressions by age of ten, but he was a real softy underneath all that. He’d fight to the death to defend the innocent, and he’d sacrifice his very soul for his bonded. 

“With Izumi, I didn’t really have to… _do_ anything.” He said, oblivious to Shisui’s inner thoughts.

Yeah, that was true. The semi-Uchiha had been very persistent for a Beta, and she had been particularly ruthless in her pursuit of Itachi. Shisui had found her charming, and was happy that Itachi had fallen for her. It was such a shame what happened, but in all honesty and selfishness, Shisui was glad of it. He was far closer to Itachi than he ever was to Izumi, and felt the world was legitimately better for having his cousin in it. 

Itachi continued, “Our relationship just naturally… happened.” He settled on the ground, letting his feet hang over the edge as he rested his chin on the rail’s lower bar. “I don’t think that will happen with Sakura-san.”

“Hm, that’s true.” Shisui reluctantly sat down on the frozen ground, but smiled when Itachi reached out and warmed him again without even prompting. “I mean, she does hate the Uchiha.”

“Hn,” Itachi grunted miserably, returning to his pose. 

“No matter how awesome we are, so I guess it’s just poor taste, really. There are probably much better and easier catches out there that you could go after rather than Haruno-san.”

He glared a warning. Tch, _touchy_. 

“Anyway, Itachi, why won’t you just go up and talk to her? You’re probably the most eligible bachelor in all of Konoha. She likely doesn’t even know you’re interested, what with your perfected Uchiha Blank Face™. Maybe you should just try asking her out and see how it goes?”

His cousin looked out into the city below them a moment before he replied in a quiet voice, “But what if she says no?”

“Then she says no,” he tried to say as gently as he could. “You accept it and move on.”

He seemed to depress into himself, closing his eyes against the cold, making him seem suddenly a lot smaller than he usually did. Itachi was shorter by several inches and by bulk than Shisui, but just the force of him—he always seemed so much larger, more present. Dominant, powerful, _Alpha_. Seeing him so disheartened was just so... wrong. 

He had to fix that. “Look, I’m going to lay this out for you. A fool proof plan, that is _guaranteed_ to work. One hundred percent success rate. It’s my super secret plan that no one else has heard before now, but has never failed me.” Itachi cracked his eyes open to _look_ at him. “Don’t give me that look. Hear me out; ok, so, Step one; _talk. to. her_.”

Itachi made one of his rare scowls, opening his mouth to reply, but Shisui cut him off before he could verbalize his protest. 

“No, no, listen. You don’t have to go _seek her out_ and do this, just… when she’s around, like on a mission with us or you see her in the hall in the hospital that you’re currently stalking for some perfectly legitimate reason, just don’t clam up or run like you usually do. Ask about the weather. How she slept. Expound upon whatever mission related topic you have, or something. I know that you’re not verbose on a good day, but just… try. You’ll never get to know her without doing so, and— _importantly_ —she won’t ever get to know you if you don’t.”

He reached out and carded a hand through his cousin’s hair, briefly leaning forward to rub cheeks against his in the familial mark, a deep sign of affection. He loved his cousin, no matter how idiotic he could be sometimes.

“You’re a good person, Itachi. You’re one of the best people I know, and she’s a fool if she doesn’t see that. However, she needs to have the _opportunity_ to actually _see_ your good side beyond your legitimately frightening Death Crow mantel, to appreciate that you’re better than all the other Alpha who are demanding her attention. It’s not like she’ll just one day start nuzzling into your neck for no reason. So, thus, Step One to my secret, master, awesome plan; talk to her, get to know her—through _normal_ channels and not _stalking_ ones—and let her get to know you.”

Itachi sighed, and looked back into the city, digesting that advice. He let the moment set before he asked, “What’s the step after that?”

He did his best to hide his grin, proud of himself that Itachi seemed to be actually listening. “Step Two; make her yours.”

A fist was suddenly jabbed to his ribs. Shisui jerked, more from surprise than from pain. It had been a while since he had someone actually make contact. “Oww…” It still hurt though.

The previously somber atmosphere between them had lifted though, as was Shisui’s intention. “You’re a terrible person to seek advice from.”

“And yet here we are.” He leisurely stretched his legs and arms out in front of him, over the cliff edge without fear. It was a really pretty view, with Konoha stretched out before them. Still, it was freezing. This view was much better in the summer. “Why _are_ we up here anyway?”

Itachi didn’t respond, and Shisui got a particular feeling. He followed his gaze and—there, perfectly viewable from their vantage point, but positioned so that it’d be doubtful they would be spotted if looked at as they crouched against the railing, were two people eating lunch in a park. One had a head of dark hair and a pig in a overstuffed jacket, who he knew to be the Hokage’s apprentice Shizune (he had been meaning to flirt with her at some point, now that she and Genma had broken up), and next to her was another woman with a head of very distinctive pink hair.

“Yondaime’s left _nut_ , Itachi! Really?!”


	6. Sasuke finds out

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the first chapter I don't really like that much of this Omake. I tried to get the Alpha battle between them without butchering either's character, and I'm still unhappy with it. But, here you go; tell me what you think.

Uchiha Sasuke had an interesting relationship with his brother, Itachi. He loved him dearly, and he was one of the few bonded to him that kept Itachi from becoming a monster (or so the clan elders believed; that just showed they had no understanding of how much love Itachi had—he was just very selective about it). 

On the other hand, it was hard not to hate him because he was just so _good_. At _everything_. 

He was the heir, he was hands down one of the most feared shinobi since the Yondaime, a prodigy, an extremely powerful Alpha that few could match, very intelligent, thoughtful, had the legendary mangekyou sharingan, and he would do anything in his power to do his perceived duty, to his bonded, to his village, to his clan (in that order). He could have easily graduated from the academy at a much, much quicker pace if it hadn’t been for that minimum age law put in place. There were rumors he was being considered as the Rokudaime Hokage, once Tsunade stepped down. 

And Sasuke was none of those things. 

He knew, in the abstract, that he was the best of his year, and there had been quite a few other clan heirs in his group. He had the sharingan, and became a chuunin a year after graduating from the academy, and became a jounin at sixteen, and ANBU last year. He was a very strong Alpha, had a good tactical mind, and was quite creative with his jutsu. He had even invented a few: one A-rank, two B-ranked, and five C-ranked. He tried very, very hard to please his clan, his father. He was a loyal, dedicated son, and he’d do his clan proud. All of these things were remarkable, in their own right. He _knew_ this. 

Still, it was hard to be constantly compared to his brother and found wanting. It’s not his fault Itachi was some ninja freak of nature. So he knew he resented his brother a bit and it was completed unwarranted, but that didn’t stop it from happening. It made him frustrated, both because he dearly loved his brother, wanted his approval even as an adult, and because he kept being _not good enough_ , and it made him want to control the things he could. When he was a genin, it had been his teammates (inasmuch as Naruto, a match in Alpha, tolerated), and when he was older it was his kenjutsu (something Itachi never picked up) and his jutsu creation. He also controlled his relationships. 

He had been an idiot when he was younger, he admitted to now. Sakura had suffered under his not-so-caring care as his first foray into romance, as she had been an Omega and, well, _there_. His father disapproved of their relationship, since Omega never amounted to anything (the Yondaime Hokage being the sole exception), and Sasuke knew his opinion was warped from that—weakness could not be tolerated in the clan, after all, and his instincts over her were not to control him. It hadn’t helped that she was particularly pathetic as a child, always crying instead of improving herself. She only made chuunin because she was the apprentice of the Hokage, he firmly believed, since her skills were mediocre in everything but dodging and medical jutsu at the time. 

Still, he had treated her more poorly than he should have when they were together, taking for granted that she’d always be there, and letting his frustrations over his life sometimes spill into their relationship. With hindsight, knew he even deserved the beating she doled out when she left him. He improved with subsequent girlfriends (his fanclub was ever eager to replace one another), but he still thought most fondly of Sakura, his little Omega, and felt one day he’d apologize and they’d reconcile and try again with much better results. Especially since she did end up making something of herself during the between time, so he knew that his father wouldn’t fight nearly as hard against her presence. 

That was why when he learned that Itachi had taken Sakura from him, he reacted as he did. 

A fangirl, Han-something-ko, was the one who had gleefully told him that she had saw his brother out with Sakura, who was _his_ , just the night prior and ‘it had been so _obvious_ they were together, they even practically _smelled_ the same.’ 

That same fangirl lost all color in her face as his eyes involuntarily changed to the sharingan, his Alpha released from his control, and his chakra spiked. He flushed first with heat, then a chill settled under his skin.

He took a breath and vanished from the room, on the hunt. He knew indirectly that his brother had returned from a mission a few days ago or so, and would have remained in the village on a downturn for at least a week until his squad rotated into service again. Since joining ANBU himself, he had a much better understanding how the organization operated, and their various schedules, even though he was currently assigned to Protection division. 

Itachi’s home was the first location checked, but he was not looking for his brother. Instead, he slipped past the traps he knew were there—he was one of the few who Itachi allowed blanket visitation to his home from the clan—intent on looking for confirmation. 

It was as neat and orderly as he expected of his brother, almost to the point of being impersonal. It was more traditional in design than a lot of what people usually get for a first home, and was in fact a small house with a garden. It was still technically within the clan’s boundaries, but was still far enough away from the majority of their members that it caused the elders to whisper behind closed doors about Itachi possibly going the way of Obito—powerful, excommunicated, and glad of it. He didn’t know if his brother would shame the clan, his family, like Obito did, and that thought pained him even under his anger. 

He made his way through the mudroom from the backdoor with careful steps, heading towards the kitchen. He looked around the modern kitchen, but there wasn’t any glassware left out on the drying rack to give indication of meals there. He checked for leftovers, and frowned when he found some—Itachi never really had leftovers when he made for himself, since he portioned the meals for one to avoid them. He moved to the living room on silent feet, and noticed there was a new basket of things, tucked neatly under the desk table. He looked through it and saw ribbons, scissors, and pruning shears that still carried a floral scent. Since there were no flowers in the home, he could only assume that his brother had gifted some to another, and the fact that he purchased a set rather than buy premade accessories meant it was not a intended to be a one time occurrence. 

Sasuke made his way last to his brother’s bedroom, and it was only a quick glance before he saw the photo. It was a new photo, appearing since the last time he visited a couple of months previous, framed and sitting on top the dresser where Itachi changed every day. Sasuke’s hands clenched as he saw his brother and his Sakura posing in front of an exclusive traditional tea house, both dressed in nicer kimono. Sakura was smiling a little shyly, hands clasped before her, and Itachi had a hand tucked possessively behind her, staring dead into the camera as if challenging Sasuke from the frame. 

Anger swamped him, making it hard to breathe and causing him to tremble with rage. He had to fight to not lash out, demolishing the room. He wasn’t a child anymore, who destroyed inanimate objects in lieu of the real source of his anger. His fingers still twitched as he picked up the evidence of his brother’s and Sakura’s betrayal, and he tucked the small picture away in his pouch before departing from the home. 

How dare she. How dare _he_. 

Sasuke had to stop, holding himself up against a tree as he tried to calm his racing heart and harsh breathing. He raised a shaking hand to brush his hair out of his face, forcing down his clamoring instincts. Maybe... maybe it was a misunderstanding. He hadn’t spoken to Itachi about Sakura in years, or ever really, except when they had broken up and his brother forced him to go to the hospital. It could be reasonable to assume he wasn’t interested in her any longer, and this could stop before it ever got anywhere, before he _touched_ what was _his,_ if Itachi _had touched her he would_ —

He sucked down a breath harshly, breathing in through his nose and out through his mouth, shaking his head as if to physically remove the Alpha instincts that were threatening to overtake him. Instincts were not orders, and could be ignored. Itachi was his brother, and he loved him, he would understand if Sasuke explained himself and his intentions towards his pink haired former teammate. Sakura, of course, couldn’t really be blamed for accepting a date from a powerful Alpha like his brother, being an Omega herself. She might have been too intimidated to say no, after all, since Itachi hardly made himself personable to anyone but his bonded, and his infamy was not limited to foreign villages. There were many within Konoha itself who feared the Death Crow. 

Sasuke, however, wasn’t one of them, and made his way to where he knew his brother trained while not on assignment once he appropriately calmed himself. It was still early enough in the day that he was positive he would be there, since Itachi was a creature of habits and he took his training seriously. 

He dropped into the training grounds on silent feet, chakra suppressed, his Alpha tightly coiled. Itachi still turned to look, however, nodding in greeting as he paused his kunai from his current practice throw. “Little brother.”

“Older brother,” Sasuke returned, approaching. He stopped while still out of immediate reach. Itachi was sweaty, but not winded, possibly more from the muggy air of summer around them than from the target practice. He wore casual clothing; a Uchiha black shirt tucked into simple black pants, wrapped with a broad, off white cloth around his waist, to which a number of empty kunai holsters were nestled. As he watched, he threw his current kunai, seemingly just into the sky with no aim. Only he jerked his fingers and the kunai suddenly changed directions, embedding into a target almost hidden behind a tree from where Sasuke could see. He was practicing his chakra strings again. 

“Is there something you wish to discuss?” Itachi prompted after he threw the last of his kunai, fetching a towel to wipe his brow. A clone began to send back the various thrown weapons, each landing with perfect thuds in the log pressed to the ground at their feet placed there for that purpose. 

“I wanted to clear a misconception,” He said, trying to be reasonable. He kept his voice neutral, calm. 

“Hn?” His brother looked back to him, dropping the towel back onto the rock it was resting on before he stepped closer. 

“Someone brought it to my attention this morning that she saw you on your date last night.” He took out the photo and presented it to his brother, and noticed that Itachi went perfectly still as he saw the picture. The almost rhythmic thumps of kunai into wood patterned the air with noise. 

“It seems you’re under the impression that Sakura is available; she is not.” Sasuke took a breath, determined to not let his agitated instincts override him. This was his beloved brother, after all. “I can understand why you would not know better, since we do not discuss my relationships, but she is mine. She has _been_ mine.”

Itachi reached out and took the picture carefully, his face a perfect Uchiha blank mask. Sasuke had a love hate relationship with that mask; his brother was amazingly difficult to read, which was extremely annoying, but when he did have an expression it usually made it that much more impactful. His large smile when Sasuke had graduated from the academy was a memory he cherished. 

“I apologize if the situation wasn’t clear before.” He ended.

“Hn,” Itachi looked at the picture a moment longer, before tucking it away into the white belt, pressed against his stomach. “I take it you were a contributing factor in her previous failed relationships?”

He blinked at the non-sequencer, “I may have approached one or two, yes. Not all of them.” He only did so when they proved themselves to be a threat to his position.

“I see.” He turned from him and gathered his kunai from the neat, tight cluster they were in, slipping them into their respective holsters. There was a lot of them buried into the wood.

Sasuke watched in silence, but when Itachi didn’t say anything else, he turned to leave, “Thank you for your understanding, older brother.”

“I am not done.” He finished replacing his kunai, and turned to lean against a nearby tree, crossing his arms. He still had his blank face, but there was an intentness about him that raised Sasuke’s hackles in automatic response. 

“You and Sakura have not been together for years,” He commented, as if speaking on the weather, and Sasuke felt a twitch in his hand at the overly familiar address. Sakura was his teammate, his former lover, his Omega, just _his_. Who was he to speak of her so? “As far as I am aware, you’ve not even spoken since then.”

Sasuke scowled, his Alpha instincts urging him to take action against this other male, as they had since he came upon him—no matter his relation to him. “That means nothing. We’re going to end up back together, I was just waiting for her to come around.”

“For being so assured of your togetherness, you certainly didn’t give that impression while with her.” His eyes glittered with some unexpressed emotion, too subtle even for Sasuke to identify.

His scowl got fiercer, and his back straightened in unexpected defense, “I was young and stupid, alright, brother? I know that now.”

Itachi’s head tilted, “Do you?”

He rolled his shoulders back, he didn’t have to explain himself. “It doesn’t matter, just stay away from her.”

“No, I will not.”

Sasuke jerked, as if hit. He honestly was not expecting Itachi to fight him on this. He was one of Itachi’s few bonded, and Sakura—for all that she was a good girl—was likely just a pretty Omega to him. He couldn’t possibly have feelings for her, since they had been together maybe one month, at most. “What?”

“You are an Alpha. I _taught_ you how to behave towards Beta and Omega when you presented, and what your actions as an Alpha did to them. Your relationship with Sakura was unacceptable, yet you now still claim possession on her years later, even sabotaging her relationships without her awareness! If you felt she belongs to you so much, why didn’t you knot her?”

Sasuke spluttered, a mix of defensiveness at the rebuke and sudden flush of embarrassment at the unexpected mention of knotting. “I was _sixteen_ , and father would have killed me had I impregnated her.” 

Anger quickly overtook him, as he understood that there would have only been one way Itachi would have learned that he never knotted Sakura, because it certainly wasn’t a first date conversation. His instincts roared in the back of his mind— _get him, get him, he is taking from you_ —and his own anger and betrayal were only feeding them. How had he not noticed this before now? How long has this been going on under his nose? He hissed, “Are you saying _you_ knotted her?”

Itachi ignored his question, and Sasuke could now see that it was _anger_ flickering behind his eyes. “Such fears apparently did not stop you from using her for sex, which had similar possible results.”

“I did not use her for sex!” Sasuke felt his Alpha break free of his flagging restraints, the unique presence, his dominance, spilling into the field as a reflection of his anger. 

“Knotting is not just about pregnancy, Sasuke; for Alpha it is possession, for Omega it is belonging. By refusing to knot her during your relationship, you told her you didn’t want her, and she constantly felt that rejection, and you _knew_ _this_. How is that not using her?” He now looked visibly angry, fists clenched at his side, his voice condescending. 

Sasuke had no idea how the conversation ended up on this, but it would stop now. His brother knew nothing about his relationship with Sakura, then and now. “I did not come here for a lecture! She is mine. You will stay _the fuck_ away from her!”

“No, little brother.” Itachi growled, low in his throat, his own Alpha curling into existence around him. “She is _mine_.”

They had each moved from their places, until they stood just out of arm’s reach of the other, glaring. Their respective Alpha energies clashed against each other, and making the air around them thick enough to choke on. They had never directly compared their Alphas, but had always known they were close. Usually Sasuke ceded to his brother out of respect, but now… he might just be the more dominant of the two, more powerful. _Better_. The thought was heady, and sent a bolt of energy up his spine.

He could take him. _He could defeat his brother_ —his heart pounded in excitement. If he beat him, _his_ instincts would submit to Sasuke’s will. Alpha were strong, and they took their place in this world by force, his father taught him so. If he defeated his brother… He exploded into action, snapping out a katon and making the world around them a lite in flames. 

Sasuke jumped back, out of the way of the flames, withdrawing the short sword tucked into his belt, wishing for his Kusanagi, but he only carried that while on missions. Itachi was dangerous, and having his preferred weapon would have granted more favorable odds. He ducked instinctually, slashing out with his sword as a hand grabbed at where his shoulder had just been. His sword didn’t even slow as it sliced a neat line across his brother’s brow, who was not quite fast enough to dodge entirely. 

His lips smirked at landing the blow and made a few hand signs, pressing his advantage. One of his custom jutsu, it charged the already present static electricity in the air, focusing the energy to his opponent as if magnetized. Unfortunately, Itachi used Kawarimi and the log was the only thing to feel the electrical burn. 

Snarling, he turned again, prepping to face his brother behind him—it was a common tactic of his. But he wasn’t there, his sword was snatched from him in punishment, and that was just the first misstep of many.

What followed was not so much a typical training spar he did with his brother; those were at least scaled to be even. He supposed that Itachi had been either going easy on him, or he didn’t have proper motivation, because the clash that followed was less of a fight and more of a quick and decisive beating. Itachi hadn’t used any weapons, and minimal jutsu, but it didn’t matter.

Sasuke ended up pinned against a tree, left eye swelling steadily shut, his brother’s hands clenched tightly around his neck. His own hands clutched at the wrists, but the grip was like steel and could not be pried off. Itachi breathed harshly above him, eyes red, and a trail of blood off the first hit dripping down to mix with his sweat. 

Itachi took a deep breath, visibly calming himself and suppressing his instinct, though he didn’t let up his grip. “I do not wish to fight you.”

Sasuke gurgled a bit, his face pounding from the trapped blood. His breath wasn’t completely cut off, only the barest gasps escaping, but he knew he’d be passing out sooner rather than later with the grip. 

His instincts responded to the beating and subsequent pinning by turning the aggression into submission, and now all they wanted to do was bare his throat to his brother and beg his forgiveness and mercy. The turn about made him dizzy—but that could have also been the strangulation. 

Itachi took another deep breath and, as his eyes fell to black, he looked at him, really _looked_ at him. His expression was suddenly filled with such sadness and disappointment that Sasuke would have whimpered had he the breath for it, shamed for his apparent failure in the eyes of his brother. 

“I love you, Sasuke,” he said firmly, leaning forward suddenly. Sasuke clenched his eyes involuntarily, almost expecting another blow, but instead his brother rubbed cheeks with him, on both sides, a familial mark more often used for children than between adults, and conveyed a strong sense of affection. It made him feel even more ashamed. He had attacked his brother, had _cut_ him intending to hurt, and had been happy about it. He had allowed his emotions, his instinct, to control him. 

Itachi pulled back, but still didn’t release him. “I also love Sakura, and we will be together now and in the future,” he said, just as fiercely, and Sasuke twitched at the declaration; his brother never said anything he didn’t mean, and he never made rash decisions. How long has this been going on? This must have been months, _years_. How terrible of a brother was he that he didn’t notice? 

He continued, “I will not place either one of you above the other in my affections. I don’t know how you got to where you are now, and for that I apologize for failing you as your older brother. But I will not stand by and allow your misbehavior to continue. I will not allow you access to Sakura until I’m certain you have grown past whatever you have for her. It’s not love, and you and I both know this.”

Sasuke gurgled again, black spots filling most of his vision at this point. 

Itachi released him, and Sasuke gasped harshly, before immediately starting to cough. He collapsed to the ground, on his hands and knees, heaving to regain his air.

He felt a hand place itself on the back of his neck, and he dropped his head to fall against the ground, not even twitching against the submissive pose. The hand stayed there as he struggled to regain his breathing, not moving or painful, but controlling just the same. It settled his mind to be in such a pose, to turn his chaotic thoughts over to just blind obedience, and he felt relief to give control to his brother. Sasuke stayed there, bowed low, even after his breath had evened out. 

“I am revoking your permission to enter my home unescorted for the time being,” Itachi said, his voice calm and collected once again. “You and I will have a discussion in regards to your behavior as an Alpha—we will not discuss Sakura during that time. Further, you will not approach her unless I am both there, and you intend to apologize to her formally for the way you have been treating her, now and in the past. I wish to have both of you in my life, but I will not allow antagonistic behaviors for that to happen.”

Sasuke nodded as much as his position allowed, a hand cupping his likely cracked rib. A lump was forming on the back of his head from where it had been slammed into the tree, and his left eye was now swollen completely shut. He felt the hand move to card through his hair gently, testing the limits of the lump. 

“Come on, let’s get this seen to,” Itachi’s voice was gentle, and caring. 

Together, they headed towards the hospital in mostly silence, Sasuke keeping his head bowed obediently, held at a lower level than his brothers. Itachi was a great Alpha, he knew, because he didn’t just control those under him, he also ensured they were cared for as best as he could. Sasuke shivered a bit, knowing that Itachi had only been using subduing attacks, and not deadly ones, unlike himself. He understood better why people within the village feared him. 

Sasuke sighed, submitting to the coming uncomfortable conversation. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It is important to note that Itachi is biased in his opinion against SasuSaku, and his accusations are not completely valid. Sasuke was a shitty boyfriend, true, and was lightly abusive (emotional, verbal), but it wasn't a "OMG, you sexually assaulted her!" level that Itachi accused of.
> 
> Sasuke's still a dick, but he's not a completely terrible person. It is something he can recover from.


	7. Tsunade finds out how just much Itachi took her order to heart (Non-canon)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This does not actually happen in my fanfic canon. But it was just too hilarious not to do it.

Uchiha Itachi was called to the Hokage’s office one afternoon. It was not an uncommon occurrence for him. He had been at the marketplace, looking for some suitable flowers for his date later that evening. He usually was summoned by messenger bird, as it was the method used for the more covert missions of ANBU, but this time he had a genin stagger up to him.

“Uchiha… Itachi…-sama?” Gasped the newly minted ninja, headband probably issued from the latest batch two months prior. They were so small at that age.

“Yes?” Itachi turned to the little pre-presentation alpha, who was red faced and completely out of breath. The unnamed genin was probably from the Shiranui clan, given that he was carrying only senbon and not kunai and his chocolate colored hair, and he recalled from Shisui’s gossip a bit back that Genma’s cousin was a recent graduate.

“The Hokage… is requesting… you in… her study.” He panted out, hands on his knees. He needed to work on his stamina. Itachi would have to pass the gossip back to his cousin, to heckle their mutual friend.

Hm, that was unusual. He nearly always met the woman in her office. He looked at the small bundle of flowers in his hands, a slight frown tugging at his lips. He created a shadow clone, to the surprised gaping of the genin, and gave it some cash to purchase the flowers for him. He may not have time later before his date, if he was able to have the date at all.

Itachi was looking forward to this date. He had managed to get the Katsura Rikyu tea house reservations, and they were particularly difficult to obtain, even for him. They had a set menu, and this season it was udon, served before the traditional tea ceremony. He had never seen Sakura eat udon before, but it was one of his favorites, so he hoped she liked it. The tea house was also a popular destination for couples, so it had a garden around the house with various festival-like activities to enjoy before entering. He hoped to patronize the photographer there, and get a picture of them together. She would be beautiful decked out in kimono, tucked into his side, and he very much wanted a photograph of that.

They had returned from their joint mission just the week prior, and had not yet fully settled into their new relationship, but were rapidly heading that way. Their first date had been a simple meal and a walk into the park the day after they had returned, where he learned the boundaries Sakura had for touch while in the village. To his contentment, she constantly reached out and touched him, and so he was more than happy to do the same in return. When she had shyly invited him back into her place after, he also joyously accepted, and he showed that joy to her for the night. Not quite as vigorous without her heat burning in his blood, but he had made her come twice before they knotted.

They met up briefly for lunch two days ago, but otherwise had not had time to see one another, each of them busy with their own errands. Itachi had to fend off his clan, training with his team, and culling of some potential recruits, and Sakura was dragged back into the hospital with those off kilter hours. Getting their schedules aligned was as difficult has he imagined it would be, but he was a patient hunter.

So he was a little irritated with his Hokage for her interruption of meeting up with his future bride, but he didn’t allow it to show, either in his face, or in his Alpha presence. He quietly made his way to the Tower, past the Hokage office, instead heading towards where her study was. He had been in there only twice before with the current Hokage, but those were more that he followed her while they were discussing something, then invited directly here. It was a sealed space, where nothing could get in, or out—chakra, sound, status. When he had been the Protection detail, he knew that the ANBU guard was actually kept outside the quarters, so the the Hokage had at least one space to either have completely worry free meetings, or just a place to escape from others.

He knocked once before sliding open the steel door, stepping inside, “You wanted to see me Hok—” Itachi quickly had to dodge the punch for his face, pure instincts the only thing that allowed the fist to miss him.

“UCHIHA!” The Godaime growled, sounding completely feral.

In a rare show of fear, Itachi felt his face pale and eyes widen as the very, _very_ angry Alpha charged him again with fists that he had _seen_ shatter mountains. He blinked out of the way, taking a page from his cousin’s book, appearing further into the room, and watched with no small amount of horror as her fist connected with the wall and _disintegrated_ it.

Sakura, the other person in the room, matched his expression of shock and horror. “Shishou!” She was sitting on top of a raised cot, which was taller than most fold aways he was use to.

He and her shared the briefest glance—he was happy to see her, but was surprised that she was here after he had been summoned. He probably should have processed that thought more, but the Hokage charged him again, and he had to focus on dodging. He was much faster than the Godaime, but he didn’t want to fight her, and all she needed was one hit. They didn’t give the Kage position away to just anyone, after all.

“Hold still, you Uchiha bastard!”

“Shishou, stop it!” Sakura stood from her seated position.

He held up his hands in appeasement from the far side of the limited space. Given Sakura’s and his presence, perhaps the Godaime had figured out he had, uh, ‘left out’ a few details from the mission report. Alpha only went feral in very limited circumstances, but they were always especially dangerous ones. When their nesting was interrupted, when their bonded were killed, or when they felt that one of their bonded was being taken from them. It wasn’t even a romance requirement, as often it was between a parent and a child or equivalent, and the latter of the two being an Omega only compounded the response. “Hokage-sama, I must ask what—”

“When I told you to not fuck up, I meant flowers! A date!” He ducked down to avoid the next punch, rolling away as she followed it to crack the floor with a high kick. “I did _not_ mean for you to get my apprentice _pregnant!_ ”

Itachi froze, halfway risen from his crouch. His heart stuttered, his mouth opened, and he gaped just as badly as the genin had from earlier. What… he turned to meet equally wide green eyes, and saw the shock there too, as she hadn’t clearly known before just now either. He… did it? He had gotten her pregnant?

Unfortunately, he was in such surprise and burgeoning euphoria that he had lost track of the angry, feral Alpha, and thus did not dodge the punch that struck him right in the temple.

He was out so fast he never even felt the pain.

**XXXXX**

“—shou, you _cracked his skull._ ”

Hm, that sounded worrisome. Good thing it was probably about someone else. All he felt was a press of warmed chakra against his head and soft hands framing his face. It was very pleasant.

“He’ll be fine. Uchiha always bounce back. Look at Obito.”

“Obito-san has some weird genetic grafting—it’s not standard for Uchiha!”

He opened his eyes and first noticed that he was currently lying down on the floor. His head was pillowed on the thighs of his beloved, and her hands were currently the ones bracketing his head. Her unique scent washed over him from his position, and the calming sensation unique to Omega caressed him as much has her hands were. Her hands were glowing a soothing green, and he did not feel worried in the slightest. She was wonderful, she could take care of everything.

Further, how could he be worried, when he was going to be a father? He felt a smile tug at his lips, and one of his hands reached up to grip her wrist.

“There is brain swelling I’m having to deal with in addition to—hey, you’re awake,” Her lovely voice changed pitch dramatically as his hand grabbed her attention, going from angry to forced cheerful. She turned from her glaring to look down at him, worry and concern in her eyes. The hand of the wrist he held moved to brush hair out of his face, following his brow to cup his cheek. “Just stay down there for me, ok, Itachi-kun?”

“Hm,” he hummed, bringing her hand to his mouth so he could kiss it. He didn’t know why she was worried, she’d make an excellent mother. His head noticeably increased in its pain when her hand was removed, but that was fine. Everything was fine. Where was that ringing coming from?

“Shishou,” Sakura turned back to the Hokage, who he just realized was leaning casually against the wall nearby. “Look at his pupils!” She hissed.

His leader did not approach to check, just sullenly picked at her nails. “I’m certain I taught you how to deal with a simple concussion when you were thirteen, Sakura.”

“That’s not the point!” She turned back to him, another forced smile on her face. “Itachi-kun, I need my hand back.”

“Hm,” he placed another kiss to it before releasing it reluctantly. Her hand found its way back to his temple, and the headache disappeared again. He blinked slowly, smiling up at her. His hands fell to his stomach, having nothing to grab now that she had reclaimed her hand.

“Why did you attack him, Shishou? It’s not like he _knew_.”

“Tch,” the Hokage dismissed, “He’s _Uchiha Itachi_ —he probably knew _exactly_ what he was doing, the little shit.”

That was true.

“No one expected _that bastard_ to kidnap me from the third Daimyo’s and force me into heat!”

“He took you to _nest_ and got you _pregnant_.”

Oh, his love turned such a lovely pink, a shade or two darker than her hair. He took her wrist again, unable to help himself from kissing the bit of skin he could reach.

“You’re two weeks along, and just guess _where_ you two were two weeks ago?!” The Hokage stomped a leg, and the floor cracked a bit more. He wondered what the salary of the person who fixed the Hokage Tower was, and whether it increased with the Godaime. “What’s worse is the little shit didn’t even _tell me_ you went to nest with him! Or even that you had been forced into heat! ‘Minor mission complication’ my goddamned _ass_. You _also_ failed to mention this.”

Sakura blushed again and looked away, even as her other hand carded itself through his hair. That was lovely. He wanted to touch her hair also, so he raised his other hand and almost clumsily followed her shoulder up. She caught his hand with her free one, and cupped it to her cheek, looking down with him with a somewhat exasperated look. “I’d say you were taking this rather well if I didn’t know how bad of a concussion you have.” She said wryly.

He wiggled a bit closer to her, the top of his head pressing against her belly where _their child_ was. He wanted to cuddle her, hold her in his arms and bury his face into her hair; this was the best day ever, even if his left eye couldn’t focus properly just yet.

“You have nothing to say for yourself, Uchiha?” The Hokage glared down at him, and he knew he probably should be worried about that, about how she was looming over him. But he could only focus on one thing at a time, and right now, that was his wonderful Sakura.

“We sshould get married,” He muttered into her palm, his tongue feeling strangely thick. He marked her forearm, since he couldn’t reach her neck. He was so happy she was his. They were going to be parents.

“I-Itachi-kun!” She stuttered, her face now vibrantly red. Hm, that wasn’t a _no_... so that probably meant yes. He put it into the cautiously hopeful pile. “That—that’s not the only issue! I-I can’t leave my job to take care of a baby!”

Oh, that was easy. “I dender my ressignasion to ANBU.” He slurred and smiled serenely as he kissed her sensitive wrist, even as Sakura sputtered again.

“Ha! Well, that’s something,” Tsunade said dryly, “I guess I won’t stomp his kidney through his spine.”

“Shishou! This isn’t a joke!”

“It’s not,” she confirmed, but sighed a weary sigh and went to plop down onto the couch, reaching for the bottle of alcohol there. “Although it may be a bit hasty of a reaction, it speaks well that he owns up to this so quickly—or bad, if the little shit _did_ know what he was doing during his nesting. Regardless, you’re only two weeks—a lot of pregnancies terminate naturally within the first six weeks, about thirty percent for civilians, and forty-five percent for kunoichi who are still active duty. A lot of women don’t even know they’re pregnant at all before they’re not; it just happenstance that I caught it. You may not have anything to worry about naturally, or otherwise if you’d prefer.”

He made a distressed noise in the back of his throat, unhappy with that fact. He’d wrap her in _bubble wrap_ if he had to. It had to be fate for her to become pregnant, from their first heat together, quite possibly the first time together, and he’d do everything in his power to make certain this child made it. Or give her another one, if it didn’t despite his efforts. Or give her another one later anyway.

Sakura responded to his protest, cooing softly as she returned the chakra to his head wound, as if that minor pain was the cause of his upset.

“Well, if you do end up keeping it, at least he’s not the _other_ Uchiha brat you’ve knocked boots with. This one is somewhat tolerable, so if you had to tie yourself to one he’s at least the better of the two.”

“Shishou!”

“And he’s very pretty, so there is that.”

“ _Shishou!_ ”


	8. Tsunade finds out about Itachi's crush

“Hokage-sama,” one of her ANBU Captains spoke up, after the others had already been dismissed for the day. “I would like to speak with you.”

She raised a brow at the masked Uchiha Itachi, curious as to his intentions. He had been an ANBU Captain longer than she had been Kage, and had never requested to remain behind to her recollection. She was curious enough to grant his request with a brisk nod despite the late hour, and waived away the rest of the Protection detail around her. In a blink and flutter of the typical illusions shinobi used to cloak their shunshin jutsu, they were alone in her office. 

She shuffled paper on her desk, mostly to make room for the alcohol that she was planning on bringing out now that her last meeting of the day was complete, but also to somewhat make the  man wait. He was a very dominant Alpha, and sometimes it just pleased her own Alpha to make him wait on her for no particular reason. He was also the heir to the Uchiha clan, and if there wasn’t a clan more of a pain in the ass to her, she’d hadn’t met it yet. 

Although, Itachi himself was always polite and obedient to her, unlike his father, so she didn’t make him wait too long. Even though it was quite fun (though often frustrating) to try and ruffle the very stoic man. 

“What would you like to discuss?” She asked as she set down her bottle on the table with a cheerful thunk. 

“I would like to file a movement request under section seven, paragraph bravo twelve against Kazami Hero.”

Tsunade poured herself a cup and sipped it, delaying her response as she processed the request. Working with more than typical amounts of Alpha members, the shinobi forces of Konoha were generally expected to suck it up and deal with one another. Usually it ended up being a fight that settled their differences—few things were as satisfying as an Alpha soundly beating another, and that went for both parties of the dispute; the sense of structure that forced was just... right—but often even that wouldn’t settle the agitation between members. Tsunade had experimented, with success, implementation of non-Alpha members on teams. Having a Beta or, better, an Omega member usually could solve most all disputes not eased by fighting, or even prevented the need for fights in the first place. 

However, sometimes even that is not enough. For one reason or another, two Alphas sometimes just could not get along. This presented an issue with trust and dependence on a team, and so section 7b(12) of the Konoha code was implemented. Where one of the two disputing Alphas could file a request to be moved, or to move the other party. It had to be chuunin or above, and it was up to the Hokage who would be moved. It went on the record of both members that the request was made. For the safety of the team, it was almost always approved. 

Uchiha Itachi had been almost joined at the hip with Uchiha Shisui, a Beta, since entering into ANBU, so she knew that it wasn’t just a group of Alpha that caused the issue to arise. However, this was the first time that he had ever initiated a request himself. He had two on record from other’s (both of whom had dozens on their own records before they were eventually removed from service), but never his own. 

She eyed him as she sipped her cup, even though he was still completely decked out in his ANBU attire, mask and all. It was against regulations to question the ‘why’ for such a request—not to mention usually futile; ‘ _they’re a dick_ ’ is hardly informative—but she really, _really_ wanted to know what Kazami did to piss off the unflappable Death Crow. 

“I acknowledge your request, and the change will be announced next week at roll call,” She said. As part of the section 7b(12), it was announced randomly to ensure the other wouldn’t retaliate against it, and only the filer would know. Well, people tended to figure it out easy enough, there were only so many reason to relocate a single person from a team, but it allowed the Alphas to save face. “You’re dismissed.”

Itachi bowed, and departed in a flutter of crow feathers. 

Tsunade finished her mouthful before she nearly dived for Kazami’s record; there had to be _something_ in there that gave a hint as to why!

**XXXXX**

“Hokage-sama, did you finish off your sake bottles again?!”

At far too early, her assistant Shizune woke up the most powerful woman in Konoha. Well, it _felt_ like it was far too early. But she knew that Shizune, if anything, was always exactly on time. Damn her.

“Ugh,” She articulated.

“If you want sympathy, you’ll have to find it yourself. You have a meeting in an hour you have to be at to plan the chuunin exams.”

Ugh, the exams were the bane of her existence. She hated them when she had to do them, and she hated them even more now, having to plan them. She swore some of the ideas the jounin put forth for testing purposes were simply to satisfy their own sadistic impulses. 

She was pulled from her bed, and stuffed back into her work clothing, Shizune nattering about all the interesting things that occurred the night prior. Unfortunately, ‘interesting’ in her line of work was equal chance hilarity, horror, and migraine inducing paperwork crunch—Naruto often managed all three at once. Speaking of, Naruto ended up somehow stranded in the Land of Stone from attempting to do his father’s signature flash jutsu (again), two ANBU teams they were expecting returned from their respective Hunt and Assassin missions, and a genin was caught trying to sneak into the Academy, probably for nefarious purposes as he had a record of antagonistic behavior against the Omega teacher that worked there. That one she made a mental note to send to the Yamanaka for evaluation, as such behavior was a worrisome indicator for future misconduct against the other statuses. 

She ate a swift breakfast of rice and miso before heading to her office and was then quickly shuffled from meeting to meeting. Most of it was mind numbing squabbles she didn’t have to pay attention to, so she allowed herself to daydream a bit. About what the main characters of her favorite soap opera would do when Shishi-chan revealed her pregnancy was the result of Taki-kun and not his twin brother Taku-kun, who was her fiance. What she should teach her apprentice later, when their training session came up (this one was a bit tricky, since Sakura learned so very quickly it was difficult, even with her decades of experience, to keep finding new topics). What flavor of sake should she indulge in later as a reward to listening to Uchiha Fugaku gripe about the security risks, _again_. 

Speaking of Uchiha, she also pondered grumpily about what Kazami had done to piss off Itachi. She had found nothing in his record indicating a particular issue, or anything with the recent mission scrolls, and the man had been as flummoxed as she when he had been moved after only so recently being assigned to Itachi’s team. Kazami was a decent shinobi from a moderate family, with no real record of misbehavior. He was boyishly attractive, but not striking, brown hair and gray eyes, with a single cheek dimpled from what he claimed was a training accident from his childhood being his only noteworthy feature. He wasn’t even a very powerful Alpha, so she had nothing to go on. It was frustrating. 

She continued to ponder this thought as she departed the final meeting of the day, before heading to her study where she knew her Omega apprentice would be. She had devised a plan to work on identifying spinal nerve damage, something she knew Sakura could always use a refresher on.

Tsunade walked into her study, and felt an honest smile tug at her lips as Sakura’s presence was made known to her past the seals. As a very dominant Alpha, having been surrounded by almost exclusively Alphas all day, feeling the calming sensation unique to Omega was always such a pleasant, relaxing sensation, especially when isolated together. Dan had been an Omega, and she missed him fiercely, missed crawling into his arms after a stressful day and just relaxing. Still, she felt the shinobi world could be better with more Omega in it’s ranks rather than less, despite what happened to her bonded, and that was part of the reason why she accepted Kakashi’s request to apprentice Sakura to her. Sakura needed strong Alpha leadership who _didn’t_ expect her to simply stand back and be protected; she needed to be strong to survive. 

“Good afternoon, Shishou,” Sakura greeted pleasantly. 

“Sakura,” Tsunade responded. She briefly marked her apprentice’s hair as she walked past in greeting, smelling an existing mark from Yamanaka Ino, Naruto, and more faintly, both of her parents. “Prompt as always.”

“What are we training on today?” Sakura beamed at the compliment.

She smirked. “Nerve damage.”

Sakura lost her smile and scowled. Tsunade knew she hated trying to track down nerve damage, which was why they were going over it again. Still, she dutifully obeyed, fetching the fish they kept for training purposes. It would have been better to train on a mammal, like a dog, but Sakura had looked at her like she was a monster that one time for suggesting it, so fish it was. Salmon just weren’t as cute, she supposed, and if it went poorly, they’d have dinner. 

Her beloved student went about her training, also idly chatting about her recent comings and goings as this was the first time they had to catch up in a few weeks due to scheduling. Tsunade went about getting her sake stash from where she had hidden it from Shizune. 

“And then Ino decided we both needed pedicures…”

There it was! Her first two stash locations had been raided, but her trusty third stash was still full. She went to her couch to watch over her student, grabbing a cup on the way.

“Ino has high hopes, since she was the one who set us up a bit ago…”

Oh, this particular bottle was just what she needed after listening to all those clan heads bicker about stupid things like they hadn’t had a chuunin exam in the city limits before. Really, why bother trying to put someone other than the Konoha police force to guard the foreigners? They’re the _police_ , it was kind of in their job description, and they’ve been doing it since the police force was formed. Clan Hebi just wanted to get paid for their paranoia involving the non-Konoha ninja. 

“The night didn’t go so badly, so I suppose we’ll be going on another date. And Hero-kun is cute, with that dimpled cheek, so I guess…”

Tsunade inhaled her sake, instantly choking. 

“Shishou!” Sakura dropped her flopping fish back into the water, were it struggled to swim after its spine was broken for her training. She darted over and assisted with a chakra infused hand to ensure the burning liquid was removed from her teachers lungs. “Are you ok?”

“I’m fine,” Tsunade gasped, her voice hoarse. “Just breathed at the wrong moment.”

Sakura looked skeptical, but didn’t say anything else. She just finished removing the residual burn, and then went back to her task, easily grabbing the almost limp fish.

“You were saying something about… ‘Hero,’ was it? You’re speaking of Kazami Hero?” She cleared her throat, setting down her cup to lean against the back of her couch casually. 

“Yes,” Sakura smiled, her worry forgotten as her teacher confirmed that she had been paying attention, “We went on our second date last night, which was nice.”

“And you first went out with him… two weeks ago?”

“A little less than that, but yes. A blind date at the BBQ place down the way.”

“Hm. Your patient seems to be suffocating, Sakura.”

“Ack!” Sufficiently distracted, Sakura went back to her task. 

She probably wouldn’t have made the connection if she hadn’t been mulling over the issue not fifteen minutes ago. It couldn’t be a coincidence. Not with a Uchiha, not _that_ one. That was about the same time Itachi approached her about the movement request. If he took offense at Kazami’s apparent dating of a woman he was interested in, it would take a miracle for him to overcome his instincts not to squish the other Alpha (something she no doubt knew he could). It would make _so much sense!_

The only issue is that Itachi was extremely introverted and she had no idea if he was actually interested in her apprentice. She’d doubt his sexuality if she hadn’t met his former lover, Izumi before she had passed.

She frantically went through her repertoire of watching her long term captain interact with her student, since they had been on missions together at least once or twice. He had always seemed attentive, watchful, but that could easily explain any Alpha around an Omega. But he wasn’t just _any_ Alpha.

She had to poke and prod, she decided, to see if her hunch proved correct. Perhaps a joint mission together? It’d be difficult if Itachi was still in protection detail, as they rarely left Konoha proper, but he was due to rotate soon enough, anyway. Maybe she’d bump him to the Tracking division early, as that would give much more opportunities to pair them together.  

She knew it may be a long shot, that there could be a perfectly legitimate reason elsewise, but hey. She had bet on worse odds. 

**XXXXX**

The first joint mission didn’t give any new insights, unfortunately. It was a Protection mission, an escort detail technically below the caliper of both Itachi’s team and Sakura’s abilities, but it was too tempting of a mission to pair them off to _not_ give it to the duo, since it was an almost three week long event. To her disappointment, the mission had gone without a hitch and neither one declared anything unusual in their reports, and both were neutral to the other when making their verbal to her. 

Tsunade was an Alpha, and she loved her bonded—her Omega student being one of them. A lot of Alpha would have gone into more of feral state had they learned of another Alpha attempting to mate-bond their bonded (she personally felt bad for the Yamanaka heir, since Inochi would probably attempt to murder the entire bridegroom’s family when Ino got married). However, she was a firm believer in the ‘get the hell out of the den’ thought process. As such, she largely encouraged her Omega student to explore her own sexuality, relationships, and bonded connections, because her romantic relationships didn’t affect her bond with Tsunade. Admittedly, that process didn’t work out the best with the last Uchiha that Sakura had dated, but that was more of a learning experience. Sakura became a jounin at the end of it, so it all worked out. It helped that Tsunade was the Hokage, and so could shit-list the little Uchiha bastard for a while, placating her Alpha dominance over him. 

She thought maybe she shouldn’t be trying to fost Sakura onto Itachi as an experiment, but really, when else could she possibly get Uchiha _Itachi_ in an embarrassing moment? Besides, he really wasn’t bad for a Uchiha, surprisingly considering his father and annoying little brother. If one looked at it abstractedly, he’d even be quite the catch if Sakura gave him a chance. And he was so _pretty_. If she wasn’t really interested and he tried something, well, Tsunade had taught her the best way to break something important. And if Sakura didn’t, _she_ certainly would. So it was fine.

The next experiment went just as she hoped it would. She had gathered her ANBU captains together, and detailed the mission requirements being a purpose of protection as they went to retrieve the Daimyo from their estate to Konoha for the chuunin exams, saying off handedly that her apprentice would be joining the team as the Daimyo’s wife was pregnant. The Daimyo was a pill to work with, and the man insisted on bringing all five of his children (each under the age of ten) with him, and so she knew it was an unappealing mission. Usually it was whoever drew the last straw, since not only did the ANBU have to deal with the finicky lord, but they had to keep track of his hoard of spoiled offspring, their retainers, all the while enduring the slow pace of civilians, which would make even the most maternal Beta pull their hair out in frustration. 

But Itachi had neatly volunteered his team for it, almost immediately after the floor was open for such. 

_Evidence!_ Her inner thoughts rang, even as her face was carefully blank as she accepted his proposal. Sakura may hate her for being stuck on the mission, which should have gone to a more junior medic-nin, but it was for the greater good. 

A little less than a week after their return, Sakura offhandedly told her about her breaking up with Kazami (as much as Tsunade pried into the matter, she couldn’t pin the cause onto Itachi to her disappointment), and so she finangled the teams a bit and relocated Itachi and Shisui to rotate to the Tracking division early. This enabled her to have Itachi and Sakura paired with much more frequency—though a Jounin, even a medical-nin, joining with an ANBU group was rare as a rule, regardless of division—and test out her thesis on pairing her second favorite Uchiha with her Omega apprentice. 

Over the next eight months, she managed to pair them together no less than four more times. Unfortunately, for the first three, she learned nothing new. She legitimately began doubting her idea of Itachi’s crush, since why _wouldn’t_ an Alpha approach an Omega about a date? Alpha, by their definition, were dominant, overbearing, forceful personalities. Itachi himself was a particularly dominant Alpha—when he walked into a room, people took notice. Omega, by their definition, were approachable, sweet and soothing in their personality. When an Omega walked into a room, they caused the Alpha in the room to relax, easing tension. 

That last mission, however…

Tsunade looked up as her apprentice stomped into her office one afternoon. She watched as Sakura stomped over to where the mission reports were filed in, and shoved her own inside. She watched as Sakura huffed, growling, to where the reports of the hospital were, and angrily ruffled through them, catching up on the happenings since she left on her extended mission. 

Tsunade knew she and Itachi’s team had reported to Konoha the evening prior, Shizune letting her know of their arrival that morning. As was protocol, Sakura had until tomorrow morning to report after her return to recover, but she normally filed as soon as she was done with her report, and liked to use the semi-leisure day to research. 

“Something wrong?” She said mildly as Sakura angrily flipped through the medical notes. 

“That man is an _idiot!_ ” She burst out. 

The Godaime carefully kept the smirk from her face, knowing it would be taken the wrong way. But, oh, this was bound to be _gold_. She quirked an eyebrow instead, and said purposely obtusely, “Naruto has his charms.”

“No! ...Well, yes, him too. But I’m talking about that arrogant Uchiha Itachi!”

_Yes yes yes_ — “Oh?”

“The man has no self preservation instincts! He thinks he’s invincible! He nearly _bled to death_ because he thought that he could just, I dunno, _survive_ until he felt that I had a good nap! ‘Felt like it wasn’t that bad’ my ass! He’s supposedly a genius, but he’s clearly _not_.”

She felt like the cat who got the canary. This was just what she was waiting for. Well, maybe not the near death part, but the mission complication—oh, yes, indeed. 

Sakura wouldn’t be as angry about this, days after the incident (the mission was in the Land of Spring, so at least a 5 day journey to return), if she didn’t care at least a little, and Itachi had been _clearly_ attempting to impress her with his “I am indestructible” mentality that was far too common in Alphas. Although, he was also known to mitigate injuries on his report, so she’d have to be extra careful reviewing his written report later.

Tsunade knew that Itachi’s entire team had returned on their own feet, whole, with their mission accomplished, so the angry rant about one of her top operatives nearly dying during the mission didn’t cause her much worry (although her eyebrows raised at the idea of an enemy getting the better of the Uchiha heir _and_ his team _and_ her apprentice). 

However, one thing stood out not in regards to her secret objective, “Why didn’t you treat him before you rested?”

Sakura paused, a blush blooming across her face. “It was a bit of a tricky escape, and I had to perform two delicate poison extractions before and fix internal bleedings on a target immediately after, so I kind of ranoutofchakrabeforeIcouldfinish.”

“Sakura,” she rebuked. “Chakra management and appropriate triage was something we trained on while you were a _genin_.”

Sakura scowled, but bowed her head under her Alpha’s light scold, “Yes, I know. I wasn’t paying enough attention. Even though Uchiha was intentionally downplaying his injury, I should have expected that and compensated.”

Tsunade nodded, “I expect better of you in the future.” She reached out to card her hand through Sakura’s hair, soothing her disquiet even though she didn’t take back her scold. However, she was on a mission, so she prodded a but more, “So, did he do anything else stupid for you to be so angry?”

“Well, he is just so… stiff! Elitist! _Uchiha!_ By the time I woke up, Uchiha was suffering from excessive blood loss and chakra depletion, and was somewhat incoherent. However, he still remained awake long enough to practically demanded that I call him by his name and passed out. I mean, _really_ , he was being an idiot, I don’t care if he was the taichou for the mission, I call people what they are! Man was bleeding to death and couldn’t even sit up right, but yet he tried to _insist_ on propriety.” Sakura huffed. 

Tsunade knew that her apprentice had likely started to berate the Uchiha once she became aware of the direness of his situation (and undoubtedly called him worse things than idiot), but she didn’t think that Itachi had given her use of his first name for _propriety_. 

The Godaime couldn’t help but laugh. This was better than she had even hoped. Uchiha Itachi, her top ANBU captain, the infamous Death Crow who earned that name at age of fourteen and within the first year of his entry to the corps, was _shy!_ **That** was the reason why he hadn’t done anything with Sakura! This was just too much. She should have known that Itachi would be socially inept; Kakashi was the same way, though he had instead developed an almost complete dependency on his Beta, Uchiha Obito, to the point where he mimicked his behaviors enough for his Alpha presence to be affected. 

What was _really_ funny, however, was that her apprentice very obviously didn’t catch on. To her credit, the Uchiha heir was one of the best shinobi in the village and well trained to hide his emotions. Even she, herself, wouldn’t have realized it had she not had that initial move request. But still, it was moments like this—watching one of her Alpha dance around her oblivious Omega—that made all of her meddling thus far worth it. 

“Shishou, what’s so funny?” Sakura grumped, befuddled by her mentors sudden laughter. 

“I’m just imagining Shisui-chan’s reaction to finding out his Alpha had nearly died of stubbornness,” she waved a hand dismissively, easily deflecting. It was almost true: Shisui was her favorite Uchiha (both because he was one of the few Uchiha Beta she worked with and because he was _funny_ ), and she knew of his close bond to Itachi. Undoubtedly his reaction would have been loud, colorful, and verbally creative. Though she really wished he’d stop using her breasts as bases of his cursing. 

Sakura huffed, though a smile tugged at the corner of her own lips. “Shisui-san certainly has the patience of a god to have to deal with Uchiha all the time. Then again, he’s also a Uchiha, so he probably was unsurprised. It would explain why he was looking like he was constantly struggling not to break out laughing, and strangling his cousin at the same time.”

Tsunade laughed again, louder, Sakura joining in, though a little hesitantly, not fully comprehended the hilarity. Oh! Shisui _knew!_ This was excellent; she’d have to reach out to him for co-conspiring later. She’d give it one more joint mission before she’d share in her plotting. 

  
But oh, the next mission would be the one, she could _feel_ it. She’d have to ensure she told him not to fuck it up, however, like he had obviously done with this latest one. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the first time I've posted a chapter without the next one being almost, if not completely, written out. I have about 6-7 more Omake ideas, but nothing really written for them. My hobbies tend to come in waves, and this one is waning. 
> 
> As such I may end up writing just one or two more, and posting what I had initially planned for the last much sooner, or this chapter may be the last one (which considering it ties into the first chapter of the original, is almost poetic). *shrug* Who knows! If you're reading this in the future from this posting, probably close to the one-two month range, you have found out!


End file.
